About Me

 My path to clinical practice was not exactly a straight line from the classroom to the office.  But, for someone who has always suffered from ADD symptoms, that is not unusual.

 Upon graduating with a BA degree in English (creative writing) from University of Maryland, I shifted gears and spent the next couple of years in a Ph.D. program in Environmental Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville. After a short but interesting stint trying to save Florida's wetlands, I eventually found my way back to my first real love—psychology. I had always been interested in studying human behavior and when I began graduate work in psychology it felt, for the first time, that I was where I was meant to be. I poured myself into the work and received my Ph.D. from U of F in 1987. It was during this period that I began to experiment with some “mindfulness” techniques that I could personalize and use to help tame my ADD tendencies--but more on that later (2).

 After graduation, I returned to the D.C. area for a post-doc Fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health where I spent three years learning how the brain worked and doing basic research. We were using an animal model to try and uncover the brain mechanisms responsible for complex social and emotional behavior. Among other things, we were interested in how the so-called "love hormone," oxytocin, promoted such all important behaviors as, well, cuddling.

 As much as I enjoyed doing research, I knew I was not cut out to be a laboratory scientist. So, I made the transition into clinical work, received my license in December 1993, and have been in private practice ever since.

 I will discuss my practice philosophy in another section of this site. However, I would like to say that my neuroscience sojourn continues to inform my thinking and enhance my therapeutic work. It has allowed me to integrate mind, brain, and behavior with the process of psychotherapy. Indeed, many of the people that I've seen over the years have expressed their appreciation for that added dimension of our work together. 

I have posted more about my experience here.

And publications form work in the lab they are listed here.