Psychotherapy

I have been a psychotherapist for more than three decades. Although I am engaged in teaching, writing, and supervision, I am rooted in the ongoing adventure of psychotherapy relationships. Each person, each session, and each moment of thoughtful and spontaneous interaction brings new opportunities to nurture growth and change, to experience the healing power of creative exploration and to open to new possibilities.

Supervision/Mentoring

Psychotherapy is more than a career. The work we do as psychotherapists is, I believe, a calling, and a vocation. It involves our entire being - not only our minds and skills, but the deep reaches of our psyches. It requires whole hearted participation - becoming "a new us" with our patients. Each therapy relationship teaches, challenges and stretches us, as well as grounds and nourishes us.

We all need help with this work. Not only do we need holding and help to understand and respond to our patients, but we need help to sense into and connect with our own deep longings, struggles and the growth potential inherent in these healing relationships. Supervision includes more than talking about our clients.

I welcome whatever emerges in our supervisory sessions, erasing hard lines between the personal and professional. I call this inclusive process, "mentoring." In one moment it might look like traditional supervisory exploration and in the next like therapy, focusing, theoretical discussion, or coaching. I enjoy working with therapists from all over the world through Skype for only a few sessions or as an ongoing individual or group process.

In the words of a supervisee:

Thank you for our last supervision session. I found it so helpful the very next time I saw my client. I appreciate how quickly and accurately you understood and tuned-in to my experience of her. Our short but powerful role play helped me to have an alternative way to be with my client. This enabled us to go deeper and further than before. Most importantly, it enabled me to step outside the “fighting with my client” scenario we discussed, which I was finding so difficult and counter-productive to my intention. I remember more than once feeling “yes, this feels more comfortable for me and I can really stay with her like this.” There was a flow and quiet harmonious energy to our interaction.