About

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Virginia. I retired last year, after 30 years of clinical practice in mostly medical settings. I am just not ready to give up providing therapy! I spent my entire career working with very low income persons who were struggling with multiple medical problems in addition to social and economic issues. My approach begins with building a trusting, client centered therapeutic relationship, and then using a mixture of cognitive behavioral and insight oriented approaches. I have done a great deal of work with childhood trauma, domestic violence, and dealing with loss and life change. I am also comfortable working with those who are dealing with terminal illness.

My style is warm, open and accepting. I am always working on being a better person myself because I know that we, as therapists, can only bring our clients as far as we ourselves have come. I am a deeply spiritual person and studied theology and world religions at the graduate level, but switched to social work when I realized that I was too theologically liberal to limit myself to Christianity! I believe that one should strive to have a healthy mind, body and spirit.

If there is one metaphor to describe my approach, it is this: We are all potential butterflies struggling to free ourselves from our chrysalis so that we can become what we are meant to be. My job is not to set you free, but simply to encourage you to work hard and break through on your own. It is only with the struggle that you will be made strong enough to fly.