My Philosophy

As a therapist, I feel it’s my job, to help identify the early patterns of attachment, uncover the latent feelings underneath sometimes problematic behaviors, and reduce anxiety enough for a patient to be able to change.  We do this by listening, noticing physical manifestations of emotional or neurological states, making connections, containing overwhelming feelings, sometimes just bearing witness to the pain. 

Attachment

The first level is attachment—the way we learn (unconsciously)  to relate to a primary caretaker during those earliest months and years, sets the stage for all relationships to come.

Psychoanalytic Training

The next factor comes from psychoanalytic training...how do we make the unconscious conscious...look beyond the patterns of behavior we’ve developed to find the feelings underneath.

Neurobiology

The third factor comes from more recent learning for me...neurobiology.  Our brains and synapses are shaped by repeated experience which gives us an automatic way to respond to most stimuli.  That’s why we can’t change just because we know we should do something differently;  but the good news is that neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire) persists into old age, so we retain that ability to change.  (less of a layer cake, more of a mixed salad!!)

My training & experience

After an earlier professional life in teaching, writing, and editing, my curiosity about what makes us who we are, prompted me to pursue a graduate degree in social work.  I went on to other certificate programs, following my interests,  in Childhood Trauma, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Adults, PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Treatment) and a six-year program in psychoanalysis. I continue to participate in several study groups and to teach and supervise.

My earliest experience as a psychotherapist was in the Adoption world where I got a first-hand (sometimes painful and sometimes wondrous) look at the dissolution and creation of families.  Next I worked at a psychodynamically oriented clinic for children and adults in Chicago.  Then, for over a decade I worked in clinical service and administration at an established Westchester County Clinic for children and families, while seeing patients privately, as well.   I was also a mental health consultant for a number of pre-schools and daycare centers, helping children, families and staff address problems that interfered with healthy functioning.  Since 2007, I have been in full-time private practice.