My approach is PERSON-CENTERED, modeled on the belief that people have the capacity for self-understanding and correction within themselves. In a safe setting, under the guidance of a gifted listener, discovery, change and growth can more easily occur. My goal as your therapist is to create this secure and comfortable atmosphere between us.
I have been a Clinical Psychologist in private practice for over twenty-five years, successfully treating individuals and couples with anxiety, depression and life change issues. PEOPLE IN THE CREATIVE ARTS & ADULT ADD clients are areas of special interest to me. Often, these two populations overlap.
My clients include established, financially successful professional and business people who feel unsatisfied with the dirth of creative expression in their lives, as well as aspiring artists in many areas who struggle to overcome the negative impact of attention-span and self-esteem issues.
As I reflect on my life, a constant and persistent theme remains as freshly intriguing as it began: I am fascinated by relationships among people and the factors contributing to all our interpersonal dynamics. Since my junior year in college, I have been teaching and studying the Person Centered Approach that Dr. Rogers identified, developed, and articulated so beautifully. I am fortunate to have met him and to join with other colleagues at the Center for Studies of the Person in La Jolla, a professional association of psychologists, therapists, educators, healthcare professionals and practitioners from all walks of life to extend our exploration of what it means to be human.
My fascination has become a calling. I love facilitating other people in their growth and development, and uncovering the persons we truly are. I believe that we all possess a natural tendency toward actualizing our highest potential, and I revel in that energy and the beauty of just being together.
Currently, I am Director of Education Transformations, a division of CSP offering programs specifically for educators to support the development of effective relationships at school. Teachers and administrators are increasingly looked to for guidance in the social and emotional growth of students. Their ability to form effective relationships with their students, students' parents, and each other is vital in successfully meeting the growing challenges emerging in education today. I have been a teacher, a counselor and a principal. I have grown in confidence and competence with each endeavor. I feel the call stronger than ever to share the important and indelible lessons I've learned with anybody willing to engage in the journey with me.
I live in the south of France at Antibes where I have been working from my home as a person-centered counselor since 2015 following my training with the Person Centered Approach Institute in France. I was accorded my practitioner’s accreditation for counseling by the French Association for Person Centered therapy (AFP-ACP) and my practice is informed by the code of ethics of this organization. My work in private practice is with couples and individuals. I feel that group work offers other precious experiences in relatedness and that the group is really the home of the person centered approach and that this dimension was missing in my daily experience since training and this is why I sought to join the online community of Center for Studies of the Person (CSP).
I love this stuff! I’ve been around studying, doing or benefiting from Client Centered Therapy/ PCA for something like forty years now, on and off. I have a limited private practice in Encinitas, California where I live most of the time. I like to travel so clients may get some breaks in therapy, or do phone or Skype sessions with me, when I’m in Tucson, the Eastern part of this globe, or who knows where else.
I grew up in a person centered environment and I attended my first Carl Rogers conference when I was little with my mother, Barbara. I loved being at the conference so much that I wanted to live there. I liked being around people from different countries and in the loving environment with authentic, non-judge mental and open people.
My background is in social work, art and photography. I present the Kids' Workshops™ and Kids' Workshop Training Programs with my mother Barbara. We also wrote a book together, Wisdom of Children, which can be found on the CSP website and on Amazon.
We feel that children are born with the person centered qualities and with nurturing and a supportive environment these qualities can be brought out and maintained as they grow. The Kids' Workshop has been shown through quotes from the children that it goes across cultures, that deep down we have these qualities in common. Children are our future and by nurturing these natural qualities within them they can facilitate change in the world.
I want to help children have the freedom that I grew up with. I would like to help people realize the power of giving children freedom, respecting them as people, trusting them, excepting them and letting them be with animals and in nature.
