About

Here’s a little about my background and how I came to be a counselor.

I grew up in England and came to America for college. After I graduated, I worked as a newspaper reporter in France and then Argentina. I returned to America for graduate studies at Columbia University’s journalism school, and afterwards worked as a reporter in the U.S. Senate in Washington DC.

The political conflict was a grind, so I moved to Portland for some fresh air. At first, I worked as a freelance journalist and found my strength in connecting with people, in understanding and relating their stories. I pursued this further and shifted the angle toward psychology. I returned to graduate school and became a therapist.

My husband and I have been together for more than 20 years and we have two teenage children. Psychologist David Schnarch calls marriage and committed relationships “the people growing machine.” My husband and I have faced our own hurdles and consequently grown. It is in part thanks to being a client in couples’ therapy that I derive my deep appreciation of the possibility of change and happiness that can come from counseling.

I believe my theoretical learning and my life experience combine to help me be a thoughtful, empathic, and engaged therapist to assist people through the many challenges of living.

EDUCATION

M.S. in Counseling, with a specialization in Marriage, Couples and Family from Portland State University

M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University

B.A. from the University of Virginia

I have trained with some of the leaders in the field of counseling. These include:

  • Emotion-Focused Couples’ Therapy – years of monthly consultation and a participant in several intensive trainings – Jamie Levin-Edwards, Psy.D.; Charles Edwards, Ph.D
  • Certified PRINT® Coach through developer the Paul Hertz Group
  • Hypnosis — an extensive trainings at the NYSEPH (New York Milton Erikson Society for Psychotherapy and Hypnosis)
  • Trauma and the Body – Peter Levine, Ph.D.
  • Internal Family Systems trainings

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

I am a member of the:

– American Counseling Association
– Oregon Counseling Association