I am a Clinical Psychologist with more than 30 years of experience treating adults, adolescents and children in the Bay Area and Sonoma County, California. I earned my Doctorate in Psychology with Honors at the Professional School of Psychology in San Francisco. Both my undergraduate degree in biology from Scripps College and my subsequent graduate work focused on the roles of stress, trauma, and attachment disruptions on the biological systems of children and adults. In the past, I have worked as an evaluator for Child Protective Services in San Francisco, Sonoma, and Mendocino Counties, evaluating traumatized and abused children, as well as providing in-patient, hospital-based evaluations and assessments. I have also provided supervision and consultation for both A Home Within and Fostering Connections, non-profit projects supervising therapists working pro bono for children and adolescents in the foster-care system.
For many years, I have been a graduate school instructor, teaching masters and doctoral students about the impact of stress and trauma on the nervous system. I have also taught psychopharmacology, biological bases of experience, and psychopathology.
I provide ongoing consultation to therapists with difficult cases. I offer both consultation groups and one-on-one consultation.
I am a member of both the California Psychological Association and the Redwood Psychological Association.
Currently I lecture nationally and internationally on the role of cognitive bias in both medical, legal, and philanthropic decision making. I also lecture on the impact of trauma on children and adults.
The patients I see often struggle with depression and anxiety, disrupted or unsatisfying relationships, poor self esteem and old unresolved traumas that interfere with their lives in the present. Often my patients have a difficult time seeing their own power, strengths and capabilities. I partner with my patients to help them uncover and connect with their most positive and optimal selves using my capacities for empathy, warmth, attunement to emotion, and strong intellectual skills.