About Me

I facilitate/coach, write, do speaking engagements, facilitate workshops, consult, provide training for mental health professionals and provide psychotherapy. I began my career in the mental health field in 1977. I have worked in locked psychiatric settings, crisis centers, juvenile justice, social services, mental health, and private practice. About ten years into my career I began noticing that traditional methods for treatment were not providing change for a significant number of people. I began a journey of asking questions. What would offer change? What prevented change from occurring? What else is available or could be created that would give people the relief they were looking for? I began exploring alternative methods of treatment, some of which became clinically validated in later years. I studied body-centered psychotherapies, various spiritual traditions, and a variety of energetic modalities. Essentially I have a foot in two worlds, the traditional and the non-traditional. I find this works well when left to my own devices. As far as psychotherapy goes, I am first and foremost an EMDR practitioner. Why? Because talking about a problem, for many, does not work to change things. We have an organic, innate wisdom that knows how to move things to health. Sometimes it is not working correctly for a variety of reasons, early neglect, abandonment, abuse, high stress, etc. Or, repeated traumatic exposure later on. There is both developmental trauma and shock trauma. Both can interfere with our innate capacities. I was trained by Dr. Francine Shapiro (founder of EMDR therapy) in 1991. At the same time I was in training for my first body-centered psychotherapy. Both were saying the same things. We have an innate capacity for health and it is our job as practitioners to facilitate that capacity to come forward and work again. For some this is a simple process and EMDR therapy works very well and easily. For those who have pervasive developmental trauma or neglect and/or shock trauma Phase 2 of EMDR therapy was created to build in core capacities that will allow you to make use of the EMDR reprocessing to change things. I specialize in experiential activities to identify what internal resources and capacities my client has, and anything that is missing is built, or rebuilt, by repeating the activities in their daily life. Many of these activities are developmentally based, should have been developed as you grew up. If they are missing the practices builds them in. Clients already show improvement with Phase 2 work creating more of a core sense of stability and confidence making the reprocessing phases effective. I also offer alternative tools for change. This can include my Somatic & Energetic Resourcing activities that I use in Phase 2 of EMDR therapy. I offer other energetic tools for change sometimes blending modalities to fit the circumstances. I explore with my clients, and with practitioners, what works for them to design individualized plans. This has meant stepping out of the traditional prescribed-treatment box and into a more fluid way of working. I prefer to work as a facilitator of change since the traditional psychotherapy box limits what is possible for change. Especially if insurance is used. I have been on Faculty with the EMDR Institute as a Facilitator since 1996 and am a EMDRIA Approved Consultant. I have provided critical incident services and crisis intervention for emergency service personnel and businesses. I have written a number of training programs for mental health practitioners, teachers, emergency service personnel, and the general public. I have also been a facilitator for a number of organizations. My book for Mental Health Practitioners, "Somatic & Energetic Resourcing - Facilitating Clients Living Authentically" was published in 2015. As far as insurance goes, I am not on any insurance panels. If your insurance plan has an out-of-network provider option then I can give you a billing form that you can submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. You will need to ask them some detailed questions because they play a lot of games to find ways to not pay for services. If you use insurance we will not be able to integrate alternative tools as the insurance companies do not cover them.