I am a doctoral level clinical psychologist licensed in PA and NJ. I received my degree in Clinical and Developmental Psychology from the University of Illinois - Chicago. I completed a pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship at the Cornell Medical Center. I have over 30 years of experience treating adolescents, adults and older adults in individual and couples therapy. We all have patterns in our behaviors and relationships that lead to predictable outcomes. My approach focuses on identifying those patterns, learning why they exist and understanding their impact on our lives - both good and bad. I help people use that insight to gain more control of their lives and make healthy changes. I try to create a warm, supportive and safe environment that promotes curiosity and courage in my clients. It is important for me to understand what my client feels would be a better life for them and what is most important for them to achieve and improve in their life.
First and foremost I want to understand why the person is seeking help and why now. I will discuss the approach that I take and answer any questions my client might have about therapy. I will also try to get a sense of the urgency and nature of their difficulties. I try to end the first session by sharing my impressions and what I would suggest would be helpful moving forward.
I think s strength of mine is my ability connect with a wide range of individuals. I listen intently and try to ask questions that encourage my client to think deeper about their struggles. I create a trusting and safe environment for my clients let their curiosity create insights about themselves.
My training and experience has focused on psychodynamic approaches. My approach is to work with my clients to become aware of the patterns in their lives that are associated with their difficulties. I work help to use that awareness to help them manage their relationships and challenges more effectively.
I believe it is critically important for therapy to clearly focus on the priorities of my clients. Their reason for seeking help is highly personal and I work with them to elicit what is truly important for them to achieve in their lives and orient my interventions to help them achieve their personal goals.
I have had a great deal of experience working with couples, from a psychodynamic perspective to help them achieve a more satisfying relationship. I try to not only have each person understand their own patterns of relationships but to better understand their partners' patterns as well. I also try to understand what brought the couple together initially to help them get back in touch with their affection for each other which can often be clouded by the difficulties they are struggling with.