Hello there, I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the states of California and Washington. I graduated from UCLA with a masters in social work in 1995 and with a BA in Psychology from UCLA in 1992. I have more than 25 years of experience as a licensed mental health therapist and have worked in administrative and clinical supervision in community mental health clinics, administrative and clinical supervision in the county jail system supervising a team of 25 staff including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and Marriage and Family therapists and psychiatric Technicians. I also worked in county government as a program manager. I supervised a county drug and alcohol community program and worked to assure county program compliance. I have many years of direct practice and supervision of interns and clinicians seeking licensure in a variety of settings. I have worked with adults, children and families from diverse backgrounds. I have successfully helped clients with a range of problems including depression, anxiety, family conflicts, trauma, abuse, and addictions. I have done a lot of individual counseling, marriage and family counseling, and group counseling. I also worked with Hospice clients, crisis intervention and was a crisis team member for many years evaluating clients for danger to self, danger to others and grave disability. I am happily married and have two successful adult children and three grandchildren. I was born and raised California. I have lived in Western Washington for the past six years as part of a semi-retirement.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
The first session is always the most difficult trying to balance gathering of information, getting to know your story, and developing rapport. In this session we identify your goals and develop a plan to address them. So expect more direction and questions in the first session. Expect to get a holistic assessment of areas that could use improvement, some kind of homework assignment, and some tools to start to practice. I am generally ok with clients asking some questions about me or treatment as this helps to build our connection which is the best way to be helpful to the client. Hopefully we hit it off and you feel like you made the right decision.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I have been told that I have a calming effect, a genuine nature and an authenticity. I am not a formulaic provider and as such it's not a one size fits all. I draw upon my years of experience to hopefully be the right person at the right time for you. I am also somewhat of a humanistic provider and as such I am not afraid to share struggles from my life which you might find helpful. I am a heterosexual man but from a gender perspective I like to call myself a girlie man. I share this as an example of how I might connect with the LGBTQ community but also as a way to share the human experience, as we all have to face some adversity. I am not a stranger to trauma and I see myself like many, a work in progress and in recovery but draw from my own traumatic experiences to connect with and understand other’s pain and loss. I am proud to say that I overcame much in my life and love to help others overcome obstacles as I have. I didn’t do it alone and you shouldn’t have to either. Finally, I am a young retiree and as such I really do this work mostly because it brings me joy and a sense of purpose. I am limiting the number of clients that I see to around 10 per week. As such you will not find in me a burned out clinician with compassion fatigue.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I work best with clients who are open and curious about trying new ways of being or doing. I really appreciate honesty and want my clients to express how they feel, if the pace is too fast or too slow or they need more direction or less direction. I work best with clients who tell me what's working and what isn't working. I work best with clients who like closure and are able to tell me they are ready to move on for whatever reason. The therapy sessions are usually once a week for 45 minutes, so this is a very limited time. I usually do best with clients who take a few notes and are willing to do the work in between sessions.