What is your philosophy of therapy?

I carry with me a profound respect for the courage demonstrated by clients as they face difficult problems in their lives.  This courage has often gone unrecognized.  Often people come to me quite beaten down by events in their lives and by a sense of somehow not quite measuring up.  One of my ambitions for therapy is to restore a sense of dignity to lives that have been harmed in this way.

I also believe in being accountable for the impact of my work on clients, and check in frequently to make sure the directions we are taking are useful.  I see it as my job to bring expertise in reducing the power of problems in the lives of clients and to notice and elaborate the often overlooked ways clients have already begun to create the kind of life they want.  

At its best, I believe therapy is not only about resolving the problem at hand, but about opening up possibilities for living that were not previously visible.    

What kinds of problems do you work with?

I work with a wide range of  problems including conflict between teenagers and parents; difficulties in couples who have begun to lose their connection to each other; and individuals experiencing depression and anxiety.  In recent years I've become extremely interested in the often heroic ways people construct meaningful lives in the face of chronic pain and illness.

Do you see Families? Couples? Individuals?

I see families, couples and individuals.  In the course of a therapy, I will sometimes see different combinations of people in order to best address the problem, and to sustain momentum as changes begin to happen.  I find that problems rarely affect just one person, and in locating solutions, I often try to mobilize the influential people in a client's life.

What is your background in therapy?

I trained extensively in family therapy, including an internship at the California Pacific Medical  Center's Family Therapy Clinic in San Francisco, CA, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, CA, one of the founding sites of family therapy.  At MRI I also became highly interested in Narrative Therapy, which focuses on the way our sense of who we are is shaped by the stories we tell about ourselves and the stories others tell about us.. 

In addition to clinical work, I've taught courses in Family Systems, Narrative Therapy and Clinical Supervision at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco.  I've also taught Family Systems and Clinical Supervision at Argosy University (now in Alameda, CA).  In addition, I've provided training and live supervision to graduate students at the Family Institute of Pinole in the San Francisco Bay area.  Finally, I've supervised graduate students in psychology from a number of clinics in the Bay Area. 

What do you think makes for change in therapy?

I start from the position that change is constant.  This helps me stay vitally interested in things we do as people that make problems less problematic.  If change is constant, it is critical to assist clients to notice the ways they are influencing the direction of their lives, rather than attributing changes to chance or luck.  I also believe that people are multi-storied--that even if someone comes in highly defined by a problem, there are always other descriptions of who they are that can be located and expanded.   Finally, the course of change can be uneven, and part of therapy involves anticipating setbacks and sustaining hope in the face of reversals.

How do you arrange for payment?

I see clients who pay "out of pocket" as well as those who use insurance.  Paying privately creates more flexibility in terms of how the problem will be described and how often you will see a therapist.  It also provides greater privacy. 

Of course an advantage to using insurance is that the co-payment is less  expensive than paying for a visit out of pocket.  I currently accept:

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

MultiPlan

PHCS

United Behavioral Health (UBH)

ValueOptions

Many insurance companies allow clients to see therapists outside their network if the therapists submits a receipt, however the co-payment is generally higher than it would be in seeing an in-network provider. 

Do you offer services in addition to therapy?

I enjoy providing clinical supervision, and I am currently working on a writing project describing ways of teaching graduate students to be supervisors who bring forth the abilities of their supervisees.  I also have extensive experience in providing "live" supervision and I provide training in the use of reflecting teams with clients.  In addition, I have taught for a number of years in psychology graduate schools and look forward to returning to teaching in the future, either in an educational or clinical setting.