I am a Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in the treatment of couples issues and the anxiety disorders.  I have also been trained in EMDR to help victims of physical, mental and sexual trauma, as well as aiding the treatment of phobia and anxiety.

I use an interactive style and my approach to healing is holistic and eclectic, incorporating humanistic, transpersonal and psychodynamic influences.  I am very interested in the meaning of life's experiences and how we can enhance our communication skills and self-esteem in order to live in peace and with integrity.

My Philosophy & Treatment of Anxiety and Phobia

It's hard to describe the feelings of fear, dismay and isolation that sufferers from anxiety and panic feel.  The sensations go far beyond the normal stress response experienced by almost everyone in this modern world.  This toxic (or clinical) anxiety is experienced by 65 million Americans.  Toxic anxiety exists for a reason - it gets our attention - and if we commit to healing, quite often we receive a message that our old system of being is no longer working.  It signals a need for a new course of action, a new mindset, a new paradigm for our life.

I became interested in the treatment of the anxiety disorders because I myself have suffered from them.  My approach comes from both clinical study and my own experience coping with and controlling anxiety and panic.  I was able to follow this pathology in me until it became a path that eventually revealed its gifts.

While Cognitive/Behaviroal Therapy is extremely important in the treatment of anxiety, I find it necessary but not sufficient for recovery in most people.  In addition to CBT,  I explore issues of authenticity, assertion, full realization of emotion, caretaking, over-functioning, control and needing to please.

I also see anxiety as a spiritual challenge, inviting us to look at the deep existential issues of who we are, what is the meaning of our journey here on earth, what is death and how we use fear to keep us from realizing our full potential.  Importance doesn't lie so much in what happens to us in life, but in what we become because of what happens.  Whenever posible, I guide my clients toward to exploration of what anxity is inviting them to become.