Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Berkeley Office
510/527-2100
With empathy and tenderness, I support you in your unique and personal journey to healing. As a compassionate and respectful guide, it is my privilege to help you find answers and solutions that are right for you. Together we will discover pathways that allow you to express your inner world, struggles, and pain in ways that create resolution of problems and freedom from emotional distress. In addition to our talking, I provide the opportunity for you to use art, music, movement, dreamwork, and symbolic techniques like sandtray therapy to help release your inner wisdom. I believe that in expressing our internal world and releasing pain, we can heal and grow in our relationships to ourselves, others, nature, and our community.
The primary tool that I bring to our work is my self–my commitment to being fully present and to creating a safe space in which you can explore whatever issues are on your mind or heart. From my practice of meditation, personal therapy, and 12-step recovery work, I know the importance of discovering and learning to listen to our own inner voice.
From my many years playing an instrument and creating art, I know the healing power of accessing one’s natural creativity–and cultivating the freedom to bring creativity and spontaneity into all aspects of one’s life. From my experience working as a preschool teacher, I know the necessity of honoring each person’s unique path of development and growth, as well as the power of play to bring us in touch with joy.
And from my long-term marriage, I have learned to practice the invaluable skills of authentic, open communication and respectful expression of feelings to overcome impasses, deepen commitment, and re-establish real intimacy. For those in couples therapy with me, it is my great privilege to help you and your partner create such a relationship–or decide to move on with clarity and respect.
From my own journey as a mother, a powerful calling has emerged: to work with parents as they enter into the remarkable and challenging passage to parenthood. I understand the struggles of becoming a new parent–the lack of time to nurture oneself, the triggered feelings that come up, and the stress due to changing family dynamics. I have a deep knowing of how to support each parent through this initial phase of parenthood, and I also know how to support couples to find a new balance and deepen their love as they adjust to their new roles as parents.
In addition, I have personal experience with infertility issues, an extended hospital stay during my pregnancy, a challenging birth experience, the trauma of having a baby in the NICU, and the incredibly beautiful and hard journey of integrating a new being into one’s home life. To support your transition into parenthood, I work with new moms and new dads in individual, couples, and family therapy.
Additionally, as a psychotherapist at our Center since 2009, I work with a broad range of other issues and a diversity of clients. Bringing my skill and sensitivity, I address issues such as:
- anxiety, depression, stress
- grief, loss, and loneliness
- transitions in all areas of life
- career decisions
- alcohol and drugs–concerns about your own use or that of a loved one
- addictive/compulsive behaviors, including sex, love, relationship, debting
- relationship issues with partners, family members, friends, and co-workers
- decisions about marrying, starting a family
- child and teen difficulties
- trauma –from the past or present
- emotional, physical, and sexual abuse
- codependency
- self-esteem and stopping the inner critic
- childhood wounds connected to alcoholic, dysfunctional, or abusive families
- Integrating therapy and your 12-step program
- spiritual growth and searching
I am a Licensed Clinical Staff Member at the Center for Creative Growth, as well as a Supervisor in our Therapist Training Program. Blending humanistic, transpersonal, and Jungian psychology, my therapeutic work also incorporates inner child work, family systems therapy, Gestalt techniques, dream work, expressive arts, mindfulness practices, focusing, somatic therapy, earth-based practices, attachment therapy, and addictions work, including the 12-step recovery model. Additionally, trained in the powerful and proven technique of EMDR, I can assist you to release trauma, whether it is from the present or past. In addition to using these approaches when working with individuals, couples, families, and teens, I use play therapy in my work with children.
It will be my pleasure to meet with you in person to explore whether I am the right therapist to assist you in your healing journey.
A Demonstrated Record of Professional Excellence
B.A., Psychology, San Francisco State University
M.A., Depth (Jungian) Psychology, Sonoma State University
M.A., Counseling Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
Clinical Member — California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists