Education & Experience

I have an extensive background in psychology due to discovering that I wanted to become a clinical psychologist at an early age – freshmen year of college. I graduated magna cum laude and earned a membership into Phi Beta Kappa from Skidmore College . While in college I did research and a field placement at Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital. I co-lead many groups and had clinical exposure to both clinical technique learning some do’s and don’ts of therapy. My clinical career began in 1995.

I went on to study clinical psychology at University of Colorado in Colorado Springs where I saw patients in both individual and group settings and conducted research in social psychology. At this point, I had done enough research to recognize that I am far more interested in sitting with people and understanding their problems though therapy than through the laboratory setting. With this realization I selected to earn a Psy.D. (a practioner’s degress as opposed to a research degree (i.e., Ph.D.) from Pepperdine University.

After an enriching education from Pepperdine, working both in inpatient and outpatient settings, conducting intellectual and personality testing, working with children, adolescents, adults, families, couples, and groups, experiencing supervision and course work from a variety of theoretical orientations, I knew I wanted to become an expert in psychoanalytically informed treatments for adults and adolescents. This lead to a two year post-doctoral fellowship at the Wright Institute of LA. This is where I cultivated the foundation of how I conduct psychotherapy.

I currently split my professional time three ways between my first baby: my private practice, teaching, and working as an individual therapist at Psychological Care and Healing (PCH). This is a residential and intensive outpatient treatment center primarily for individuals with emotional dysregulation (including those with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, and trauma). I love this work and find it to be a rewarding challenge to work with patients that may not be suitable for a private practice setting because they need a larger team of professionals. I find this trio of work settings to be incredibly rewarding and complimentary to each. One feeds the other.