My Approach to Helping
My work combines my personal knowledge and experiences of the special challenges and gifts that define the creative experience with insight work and mindfulness-based psychotherapy. I've worked with writers, musicians, dancers, painters, computer programmers, tattoo artists, and more, to help them work through creative issues, relationship problems, anxiety, and many other concerns. In my experience, people who have spent their lives developing their creativity have a unique skillset which is often overlooked as a place from which to draw strength and guidance in building relationships, coping with stress, and making life decisions. I tend to focus on strengths: you might be surprised at what you already know.
You can read more about my work with creative people at my external site, linked at left.
More Info About My Practice
I currently have hours available Tuesdays through Saturdays. I accept Blue Cross-Blue Shield-CareFirst and Johns Hopkins' EHP (for employees and medical campus students) and CHP (for Peabody and Homewood campus students) insurances, as well as fee for service. Before we meet, I typically like to talk over the phone to get a sense of what you're looking for and how that fits with the services I offer. If we agree that we could make a good match, we'll schedule an intake session to explore your interests, background, and goals in more detail.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me by email or by phone.
What I Love about Being a Psychotherapist
Being a psychotherapist is one of the greatest privileges I have had in my life. In this role, I have the honor of sharing the unique journey of each person I work with as they strive to make a better life for themselves. One of the most powerful experiences an individual can have is the discovery of a new way of understanding, an opening to a new feeling or a re-opening to a long-neglected part of her- or himself and the chance to nurture that. Once we understand the patterns and find the blind spots, we can begin building new skills, making new choices, developing new habits, and the old ways of being that didn't work so well begin naturally to fall by the wayside.
My personal background is as eclectic as my practice: I became a psychologist relatively late in life, having explored a wide range of careers, as a semi-professional musician, breadmaker, massage therapist, player piano restorer, even helping to manage a small Manhattan business consulting firm. I have personal and avocational interests in music, astronomy, cartoon art, lutherie, and Eastern philosophy. This breadth of experience and interest has exposed me to a great many ways of seeing and understanding the world; I draw on these perspectives every day in my practice and I believe they help me appreciate in a very deep way the unique experiences of each person who works with me.
Importance of the Client-Therapist Alliance
I believe that the relationship between psychologist and patient is the single most important aspect of effective psychotherapy. Together, we co-create a safe space that allows for the understanding, insight, and action that produce change. We are fellow travelers, each bringing unique experience to the dynamic: I have expertise in how human beings work; you are the expert on you and your life. Together, we can uncover new understanding and design effective ways to change what you want changed.
From a technical viewpoint, I strive to integrate, in a structured, meaningful, and empirically sound way, a wide range of clinical perspectives. My experience is that no single theory has all the answers; I take a "right tool for the job" approach in my work and rely heavily on your feedback in determining precisely what that job is and what right tools are.
