Personal Statement

I have been a practicing therapist and family therapist for about 30 years. I work with individual adults, with couples, and with families. I am trained as a family therapist, and am a licensed marriage and family therapist. A lot of my work now is with couples both married and unmarried.

I have always worked with families. Most families come with concerns about children, ranging from young children to teenagers. I work with a full range of issues: school problems, behavior problems, depression, adolescent issues, family conflict and communication issues. Children come in with a range of diagnoses from ADHD. to bipolar disorder. But, as a family therapist, I think we pay too much attention to diagnoses these days, and it is more useful to look at the dynamics in the family and the strengths the family can use to resolve issues. I have also always been interested in adult issues in families, parent/child and sibling issues that continue in families into adulthood.

I also do hypnotherapy, focused on issues of anxiety ( general anxiety, social anxiety, phobias, panic attacks) and depression. I use hypnosis in combination with other more traditional modalities in my work.

Besides my private practice, I provide consultation and training on working with families to agencies, and have worked with agencies involved in mental health, substance abuse, school based programs, foster and residential care. I also teach hypnosis for the NY Society for Ericksonian Hypnosis ( NYSEPH)

I am an approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)