May 15 2008
Brief Bio and Personal Statement
Welcome to my website log. In this post, you will find information about my education, professional experience and training. I welcome any of your questions.
Education:
MSW, Jane Addams School of Social Work, University of Illinois, 1979
BA, Sociology, DePauw University, Graduate with Distinction, 1975
Post-graduate Training:
Marriage and Family Therapy, Chicago Center for Family Health (1995-1996)
Family Therapy, Institute for Juvenile Research Family Systems Program (1984)
Interactional Guided Imagery, Academy for Guided Imagery
Professional Experience:
Private Practice, Psychotherapy, Training, and Consultation (1996 to present)
Core faculty for the Chicago Center for Family Health where I teach, offer workshops and trainings and provide individual and group clinical consultation
Former Lecturer: University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration, Therapy with Adolescents and Families, 2000-2004 (1 course, spring quarter)
Several other clinical, supervisory, and management positions in the social service field.
Licensure: Illinois Licensed Clinical Social Worker ( IL 149-003694)
Personal Statement:
First and most importantly, I really love what I do and respect and value the clients who choose to work with me.
After 31 years in the field, I am familiar with most concerns that bring people into therapy.
Over the last 10 years, I have begun to work with more younger couples dealing with a variety of issues, including intimacy, affairs, substance abuse, and inability to communicate.
Probably the most common first step in couples work is to assess and improve the way couples speak and listen to each other.
I like to say that I promise to help you learn a way of communicating with each other beginning the very first session.
Learning to listen with empathy, compassion, and calmness goes a long way to reduce the level and intensity of conflict.
Likewise, learning to speak with out pointing the finger in blame is very important.
Couples I work with learn this model quickly.
My work with individuals often focuses on identifying, understanding and resolving problems related to growing up in vulnerable families where alcohol abuse or other types of physical, emotional or sexual abuse may have occurred.
I have also taught at the graduate school level and continue to teach and supervise therapists and offer workshops in family therapy, imagery, psychodrama and other integrative and expressive therapy.
I have worked in the social service field since 1975. My early work was in the delinquency prevention and child welfare field where I provided counseling for youth and their families as part of several family therapy based programs.
I have been married for 29 years and have a very successful daughter in college, so I have enough life experience to help guide my work.
I have done a lot of work with trauma survivors, so am familiar with the wide range of human experiences we share.
I am a trauma survivor myself, having been raised in a family characterized by alcoholism, rage, and domestic abuse. I have done a lot of personal work finding my way out of that maze, and am a better therapist for my own work.
For those of you interested in therapy models, I integrate insight oriented family and cognitive therapy and guided imagery.
I am an enthusiastic reader of all scientific research about psychology and effective therapy models.
I will also attempt to explain all of this to you as we go along, so at the end of our work, you will be able to understand yourself and the world around us much more.
Finally, I love to laugh and will help us find humor in whatever we are struggling to learn, change or transform!
I welcome any of your questions about this or other aspects of my practice and hope you will find some of the posts and pages I have compiled and the links to other educational sites helpful.