I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Delaware and my Master of Arts degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University. I completed post-Masters trainings in individual, couple, and family therapy at the Family Service Agency of Marin and in Structural Family Therapy at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.
I began my career in mental health in 1971 and have been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1980. For much of this time, I was a Mediator, Evaluator, and Child Custody Recommending Counselor with Family Court Services of the Contra Costa County Superior Court. Although my primary focus has been working with adults and children struggling with the pain and turmoil associated with separation and divorce, I have had significant experience helping a wide variety people deal with a wide variety of problems. In addition to providing psychotherapy to many adults, children, couples, and families, I taught preschoolers in Oakland at Head Start and at Pacific Children’s Center, the latter a day treatment program for young children with serious emotional, behavioral, and developmental problems, including autism. I have worked in residential and out-patient psychiatric treatment facilities for adults, adolescents, and children in Delaware and California and have conducted psychotherapeutic and psycho-education/support groups for children, fathers, and other men. I also served as a Community Mediator with the Conciliation Forum of Oakland and as a private, family therapy consultant to staff therapists in the Child and Family Unit of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek.
I have traveled extensively and am conversant in Spanish and French. For several years, I lived in West Africa, where I conducted psychotherapy with expatriate individuals and couples and worked for the US Peace Corps as a crisis intervention therapist and trainer. I am married and have an adult son.
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