I was born and raised in the Philadelphia area where I attended Quaker school for twelve years. I received my undergraduate degree in English, with a concentration in writing, from Goucher College in 1999. Shortly thereafter, I earned my M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. Upon completion of Penn’s Teacher Education program, I taught high school English in a nearby suburb for six years. Several epiphanies later, I traded in my “teacher” status for renewed “student” status (at least in the more formal sense!) when I decided to return to graduate school. I received my Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University in 2009.

 

 

While I certainly do not want to devalue my formal education and training, the truth is that it will never substitute for the wisdom that I have gleaned (and that I continue to glean) on the intensely personal and humbling journey through inner space. In truth, I have spent the better part of the last decade navigating the sometimes-daunting process of therapeutic growth from the inside, and, as a result, it is one that I have come to believe in unconditionally. 

 

Like many of my clients, I initially entered therapy because I was suffering -- emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Unfortunately, what I found, at first, was a bit disheartening. I met quite a few “clinicians”; therapists who were schooled in the discipline of psychology, but who seemed to lack the more profound capacity of heart required to really hold my experience in the most compassionate way.

 

I desired deep humanity in a therapist; I hungered to feel something inspired and enlivened coming from the person sitting across the room from me. Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa once said that “the basic work of health professionals in general and psychotherapists in particular is to become full human beings and to inspire full human-beingness in people who feel starved about their lives.” When I finally met the woman whose presence ignited that flame of aliveness within me, psychotherapy began to look quite different indeed. 

 

All at once, therapy started to take on a quality much more akin to being. Rather than focusing on doing, changing, or striving, the process suddenly revolved around creating and holding a certain quality of space. It was in that womb of unconditional acceptance that my authentic self was able to safely reveal itself.

 

Interestingly, the paradox of change is that we transcend our circumstances by claiming them. What I discovered was that, once I began to do that work of acceptance, the process of growth started to unfold more or less organically, of its own accord. Of course, my personal journey is continually unfurling. As it does, I remain awed by the power to move through even the most profound pain without being destroyed by it. I consider my emergence into this field to be a testament to my faith in the movement of life itself, and in the human capacity to heal.

 

 

People often ask me about the progression from teacher to counselor. As it turns out, my roles in the two professions have actually been rather similar. In both forums, I have continually endeavored to be a facilitator of growth in individuals, whether that growth be intellectual, emotional, psychological, or spiritual in nature. In fact, in my own life, some of the greatest “teachers” have been therapists and healers who have helped me to understand, make sense of, and accept my own complex and multifaceted experiences.  

 

It might also help to know that my interest in teaching English was never borne out of a fascination with pedagogy itself; rather, I wanted to talk to students about the human condition.  Literature, I reasoned, was a perfect catalyst for inspiring conversations about our collective plight. After all, where is the beauty and authenticity of the individual spirit more profoundly depicted than through, for example, the prose of Fitzgerald or the poetry of Whitman? At this point in my life, I have resolved that the former is actually not a rhetorical question, and that the answer is “in the flesh.” Hence my decision to more directly explore the human heart and psyche.

 

In the traditional classroom setting, I was required, to a certain extent, to acquiesce to the confines of a more conventional morality. And that was a constant struggle, especially in the face of so many students’ circumstances that begged for a more expansive container. Thus, I eventually decided to leave my tenured teaching position in order to forge a path that would allow me to help people steer a course through their own personal stories, with no caveats for “acceptability.” After all, our struggles are never “right” or “wrong.” They simply are. Whether in the classroom or the therapy room, it has always been my intention to honor this deceptively simple truth.

 

 

I entered Temple University’s Masters program in Counseling Psychology in the fall of 2007. For the last two years, I have worked at The Starting Point, Inc., of New Jersey, where I have seen clients ranging in age from 14 to 70. During my time there, I have helped people of diverse backgrounds grapple with a host of life circumstances relating to issues of grief and loss, anxiety and depression, substance abuse, sexual identity, relationships, and self-esteem.

 

Last summer, I expanded my private psychotherapy practice into Center City, Philadelphia. Here, too, my clients vary greatly in terms of age and circumstance. The commonality tends to be an eagerness to learn and grow. It is truly an honor to bear witness, day after day, to the honesty, integrity, and resiliency of so many courageous individuals inspired to heal.

 

In addition to my more formal therapeutic work, I also work with a number of people in a coaching or consulting capacity. Most recently I have tutored and encouraged several young writers, I have provided feedback to professionals about myriad writing projects, and I have facilitated growth and expansion through guided forays into the writing of fiction and memoir.

 

Lastly, I practice a form of energy medicine called Flower Essence Therapy. I explain the concept of vibrational medicine and how the essences work in much greater detail here.

 

In my personal life, I am an avid yoga practitioner and writer. I also greatly enjoy art, music, literature, film, comedy, good food, and massage. I am passionate about the cultivation of greater consciousness in our world at large, and I hope that we can get there with kindness and humor. I live in Philadelphia with my husband and our three cats.