BACKGROUND

In my many years providing therapeutic services to individuals, couples, and groups, I have had the privilege of working with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and ages on a wide range of concerns.  My undergraduate and doctorate degrees are from the University of Chicago, where I was able to study the intersection of psychology and culture. 

My doctoral program focused both on individual human development and on the intersection of our individual selves with the environment around us.  I studied the stages of our lifespan and the potential challenges and growth inherent in each stage, as well as how each of us is influenced by those around us – our family, community, society, and our culture.  My academic research echoes the above theme of self and culture with research conducted both here in the U.S. and fieldwork funded by an NIMH-fellowship to conduct cross-cultural research in a psychiatric facility in India.

I trained and worked in several institutions in Chicago, IL and then at Miami University in Oxford, OH.  I worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, for 14 years where I was a therapist for university students, as well as an associate director and training director. As associate director of the center, I structured policy, contributed to departmental oversight, and collaborated with other departments at the university. As training director for psychology and social work trainees, I oversaw the training program, facilitated didactic programs, and supervised trainees on clinical practice.  Furthermore, I was and continue to be an adjunct assistant professor at CWRU’s Department of Psycholgy and have supervised psychology students and taught courses on diversity for the department. Over the course of my academic and clinical experience thus far, I have had the great honor to work with individuals from a range of religious orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures and countries, sexual and gender identities, and neuro-abilities.   

Taken together, my academic, research, and clinical backgrounds have shaped my framework as a therapist.  As I consider each client as an individual, I am also actively considering how each person is shaped by family, community, and overarching cultural expectations and values.  I pay attention to what many of us experience as that elusive line between feeling like an individual and feeling like an outsider; or, the line between belonging and conforming.  Many of us revisit these themes, among others, as we develop through different stages of our lives.  Much of my practice with clients involves fundamental themes such as these, even as we work on anxiety, depression, or traumatic events that may initially have been the catalyst to seek therapy services.