Experience

For over twenty years I have focused my professional energies on helping relationship partners find positive and productive solutions for a host of relationship issues. I have worked with countless individuals and couples in several different contexts: as a senior clinician and treatment team member in a community mental health center; as a clinical administrator for a psychiatric residential treatment center; as a clinician in a large group practice; and in my own private practice. As a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, I have, in the past, provided supervision for clinicians working toward licensure in Virginia. However I am no longer providing this service. I continue to provided consultation to licensed professionals seeking to hone their skills in working with couples and families.

Approach

My approach is to talk with prospective clients to get a better sense of their situation and needs. Then I outline how I would approach the relationship issue(s) that the client (individual adult or couple) is experiencing. I would then determine together with the client whether their particular problem and my approach seem well matched. If so, we would then set some goals together, develop a plan to achieve those goals, and begin working immediately to reach them.

Since relationships only change if the parties in the relationship are open to change, I work with clients like a coach and process consultant to identify where changes need to be made and how to make them and I provide support as clients do the challenging work of enacting these changes right in the therapy sessions.