PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICE
Since receiving my psychology license in 1997, I’ve worked with families, couples and individuals.  I like to be active and collaborative with clients in addressing problems.  I maintain a sense of hopefulness about the possibility of change.  I currently practice in the Old Port area of Portland, Maine. 

SUPERVISION

Starting in 2001, I began supervising in a number of settings including the Psychological Services Center in Oakland, CA; the Family Institute of Pinole, CA; and the Alternative Family Institute in San Francisco.  I’ve also provided “live” supervision using one-way mirrors at several locations, including Argosy University.

TEACHING

In 2003 I began teaching a course on Family Systems approaches to therapy at the California School of Professional Psychology.  I soon began teaching an additional course, “Learning How to do Supervision,” which prepared graduate students to be future supervisors.  I also taught courses in Narrative Therapy, emphasizing ways that lives and relationships may be approached therapeutically through a story metaphor.  In addition, I co-taught in a postgraduate training program sponsored by the Association of Family Therapists of Northern California which focused on culturally informed, post-modern approaches to family therapy.  Since my move to Maine in 2009 I am not currently teaching, but I still serve on the dissertation committees of former students.

WRITING

In 1997 I published an article in the Journal of Systemic Therapies titled, “Voices of Experience: Inviting Former Clients to Rejoin the Therapy Process as Consultants.”  Earlier this year I co-authored an article for Family Process on the use of reflecting teams in therapy, titled: “A Fugue in Four Voices: Sounding Themes and Variations on the Reflecting Team.”  I am currently preparing an article describing ways of training future supervisors informed by the use of a narrative metaphor. 

PRESENTATIONS

·        "A Fugue in Four Voices: Revisiting the Reflecting Team." Presentation with Jane Ariel, Ph.D., Ellen Pulleyblank Coffey, Ph.D. and Sam Tabachnik, Ph.D. at the June 2009 American Family Therapy Academy conference in New Orleans.

·        “The Secret Lives of Happy Couples.” Class presentation at Argosy University, Point Richmond, CA, February 2002.

·        “Externalizing vs. Internalizing conversations: Road Maps for Narrative Therapy.” Presentation with Pablo Castro at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, July 2001.

·        “An Introduction to Post-modern Ideas and the Narrative Metaphor.” Presentation with Isobel Scher inaugurating a six-month training series at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, January, 2001.

·        “Cultural Discourse and Narrative Therapy.”  Presentation with Pamela Montgomery and Pablo Castro at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, July 2000.

·        “An Introduction to Narrative Therapy.”  Presentation at the University of San Francisco, Cupertino campus, December 1998.

·        “Narrative, Culture and Problems: Ways to Construct Problems Clinically Taking into Account Larger Socio-Political Contexts.”  Presentation at the American Family Therapy Academy Pre-Conference in San Francisco, June 1996.

EDUCATION

I received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan in 1984, and then spent four years working as a newspaper reporter.  Shifting directions, in 1990, I earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle.  In 1995 I earned my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in Alameda, CA (it is now located in San Francisco).

TRAINING

Long before I became a psychologist, I was quite taken by a book written by Lynn Hoffman called “Foundations of Family Therapy.”  She offered riveting portraits of the “pioneers” of family therapy, and a striking account of its different incarnations in the days when family therapy was fresh and new.  Starting with my first practicum in 1991 at Xanthos in Alameda, CA., many of my training experiences emphasized family and couple therapy.

I departed slightly from this pattern from 1992-1993 to train at the Center for Special Problems in San Francisco, a site that emphasized group therapy with men who engaged in physical and sexual violence, and individual work with incest survivors and transsexuals in various stages of transition.  From 1993-1994 I returned to an emphasis on family work, holding an internship at the Family Therapy Clinic of California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.  I also trained at Redwood Psychology Associates in Berkeley, CA, which emphasized a systemic approach.  From 1995-1997, I held a postdoctoral position at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, CA, one of the founding sites of family therapy. 

MRI was a professional home to me for six years.  I served as director of MRI’s Residency Program from 1997-1998, which provided training opportunities to visitors from around the world.  From 1998-1999 I served as MRI’s Director of Training.  I also helped found MRI”s OllinQi Center for the Exploration of Alternatives, Changes and Solutions, from 1999-2001 where I offered training and was a co-organizer of the 2000 conference, Stories of Hope: Responding to Violence Through a Multicultural Lens.

At MRI I trained intensively in Narrative Therapy, drawn to its emphasis on transparency, a respectful attitude toward clients, and hopefulness about change.  I participated in MRI’s eight-month Narrative Therapy Externship taught by Vicki Dickerson, Jeff Zimmerman and John Neal.  I also saw clients through the MRI Clinic, which emphasized a Narrative approach, including the use of reflecting teams.  In 2001 I traveled to Adelaide, South Australia for a two-week intensive training with Michael White, a co-founder of the Narrative Therapy along with David Epston in New Zealand.  When David Epston came to the Berkeley area to offer workshops, I would regularly attend, as they were imbued with his infectious optimism and abiding dedication to ways of extending and improving the craft of Narrative Therapy.