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 co-leader, Breakthrough Weekend, personal growth retreat for men. I also provide training in group leadership and psychodrama for adult volunteers. 2003-May 2008
Director of Social Services, Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House. I provided therapy and support services to end stage AIDS patients and their families.
Licensure: Illinois Licensed Clinical Social Worker ( IL 149-003694)
Personal Statement:
My current practice focuses on work with couples, adults and adolescents.
I have a special interest in work with adults who grew 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 always been drawn to a family therapy approach to psychotherapy, as I understand the important influences of our parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family on our growth and development.
Current research on attachment, attunement and neurobiology are providing evidence of the significant influence of our families on not only our psychological development, but also on the physical development of our brains.
For example, we know from this research that stress from emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse can dramatically impair the physical maturation of the hippocampus thereby damaging a person’s ability to learn, reasoning and judgment. This research has shown reductions such as 5-8% in physical maturation and correlations to learning problems and delayed recall of memory.
As a result of this research, I became interested in therapy methods which focused on the integration of the mind, body, and emotions, including the practice of guided imagery and psychodrama.
My study and experience over the years has informed me that being able to move from the conversational aspects of therapy to exercises that can quickly help clients sleep better at night or learn ways to heal from earlier childhood abuse has been helpful to my clients.
Also, I worked as part of a collaborative, integrative therapy team at Bonaventure House and Strong Spirit Wellness Center, a program of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. The clinical focus was brief and long-term psychotherapy with adults living with chronic and life threatening illness, particularly HIV/AIDS.
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.