About
Mission
I believe each one of us has the capacity and resilience to live a full, meaningful life, in spite of immensely painful and traumatic experiences. What we find when we courageously seek therapy is a relational home, a safe dwelling place, where insufferable feelings can be expressed, shared, and understood-opening new paths and new possibilities for deeper meaning in our lives. I am privileged to walk alongside you and help you grow beyond the places where you felt alone in your pain and convinced that expansiveness and growth were out of reach.
“it may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work… when we no longer know the way to go, we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
-Wendell Berry
Professional Experience
2002 - Present: Private Practice, Westlake Village, California, (MFC 39348). Director of Child, Youth, and Family Services at The Church of the Epiphany.
2018 - 2020 Elementary Counselor at Campbell Hall Episcopal School; presented paper “Un-silencing as Rebirth” at the IFPE 29th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference, Seattle, WA.
2009-2018 Facilitated weekly Bereavement Support Group at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Assisted at Emotion Focused Therapy Core Skills Training and Externships; and Hold Me Tight Workshops.
2007- 2009 Class facilitator for the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) extension classes. Co-facilitated process group for LGBTQ+ youth at monthly PFLAG meetings and Grief and Loss Group at The Church of the Epiphany.
2004-2007 Training Supervisor, La Vie Center, Pasadena.
2002 - 2004 Licensure: Marriage & Family Therapist (Lic. No. MFC39328) Facilitated bereavement group at Lake Avenue Congregational Church. Began 10-year position as co-director of the Epiphany Youth Group at The Church of the Epiphany.
Formal Education/Institute Training
June 2024
EFT Summit Harlem, Netherlands.
April 2018
Working with Highly Escalated Couples Webinar presented by George Faller.
January 2018
How to Facilitate a “Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go” Teen Family Workshop Nancy Aikin, Ph.D and Paul Aikin, PhD.
November 2017
Hold Me Tight Workshop, assistant. Presented by Silvina Irwin and Lisa Blum, Lake Arrowhead, CA.
October 2017
EFT Summit San Diego.
January 2017
The Road to De-Escalation - Presented by Kathryn Rheem and Jennifer Olden.
January 2017
Mastering First Sessions Kathryn De Bruin, LMFT and Pam SolemWeser, LPC.
February 2016
EFT Triage: Mastering the Bleed Outs in Couples Therapy, Lisa Palmer Olsen, Gail Palmer, Jim Furrow, George Faller, Michael Barnett.
September 2015
Emotionally Focused Therapy Core Skills Training presented by Kathryn de Bruin, Nancy Gardner, Santa Barbara, CA.
June 2015
Clinical Implications & Applications of the Adult Attachment Interview, Daniel Siegel, M.D.
September 2014
Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Home is where we start from… and some find it hard to leave, presented by Nancy Gardner, Ph.D.
August 2013-March 2014
Emotionally Focused Therapy Core Skills Training presented by Dr. Jim Furrow, MFT and Lisa Palmer Olsen, MFT.
July 2012
Third International EFT Summit: The Power of Emotions: Loving Connections, Lasting Bonds. New York City, NY. Presented by Sue Johnson, Ed.D., Dan Hughes, Ph.D., Diana Fosha, Ph.D., Phillip R. Shaver, Ph.D.
June 2011
Hold Me Tight Workshop, Stockbridge, MA. Presented by Sue Johnson.
September 2007 – 2009
Candidate in Training for the Psy.D. in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
November 2005
The Anatomy of Intimacy: Attachment, Differentiation and the Biochemistry of Love, Irvine, CA. Presented by David Schnarch, Ph.D., Sue Johnson, Ed.D., Daniel Siegel, M.D., Diverse perspectives and worldviews on the relational dance and the development of emotional bonds.
August 2003
The Process of Change: An Interpersonal Neurobiology of Psychotherapy Daniel Siegel, M.D., Maui, Hawaii. Four-day conference emphasizing the interpersonal neurobiology of psychotherapy in the context of Attachment Theory.
February 2002
Empathy and Authenticity: Relational Considerations, Los Angeles, CA. Discussion on the dialectical tensions in the analytic relationship and the integration of empathy and authenticity.
August 2000
Summer Emotions Institute, Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D., Toronto, Canada. Four-day externship emphasizing the facilitation of emotional processes and the selfreorganization of emotional schemas and personal meaning.
June 1998
M.S. Marriage and Family Therapy
M.A. Theology Fuller
Theological Seminary
June 1993
B.S. Psychology
California Lutheran University