My Background
Therapist as Wounded Healer
Psychotherapists gain empathy for their clients’ concerns through life experiences. Some of the experiences that have added depth to my work include:
- Resolving heartbreak and relationship problems, resulting in a happy marriage
- Experiencing the impact of mental illness, divorce, and money conflicts in my childhood family
- Succeeding and failing in the business world
- Coping with personal health issues (I'm okay now)
- Encountering spiritual phenomena, including a life-changing, near-death experience. (Beyond asking about your background, I only address spiritual or religious issues if this is a need you bring to psychotherapy.)
- Understanding from the client's chair the challenge of facing oneself in psychotherapy
Education
- Ph.D. Clinical Psychology with emphasis in Depth Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2001: Graduated at top of my class
- M.A. Psychology with emphasis in Holistic Studies, Antioch University San Francisco, 1981
- B.S. Economics, Marketing major, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, 1973
- High School Diploma, The Gunnery, Washington, CT, 1969: Graduated Cum Laude
Clinical Training
I've had a variety of training experiences for my academic degrees, which are listed below:
11/2009 - 1/2010: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Basic Training, Parts 1 & 2 with Laurel Parnell, Ph.D., San Francisco, CA. This training consisted of two long weekends of theory and practice. The curriculum presented is approved by the EMDR International Association and is sufficient for licensed therapists to start using EMDR in their practice. I currently participate in consultation sessions to refine my EMDR skills with Dr. Parnell and fellow trainees. I also have access to Dr. Parnell's faculty of consultants for help with issues that may arise between consultation sessions.
9/2002 - 8/2003: Psychological assistantship with Ann Bernhardt, Ph.D., Mill Valley. Addressed individuation, bereavement, aging and related medical concerns, and characterological aspects of Mood Disorders. The work was informed by cognitive, solution-focused, and depth psychological theories, with the latter including Jungian and psychodynamic approaches. Depth psychological training included applications of dreamwork, attending to the transference and the interactive field (relational aspects of therapy), characterological assessment and crisis intervention. Collaborated with medicating psychiatrists. Dr. Bernhardt still serves as a consultant. (For Internet searchers, her current phone number is 415 383-6068).
9/2001 - 9/2002: Post-doctoral fellowship at Kaiser Permanente Psychiatric Services, San Rafael. Offered individual, couples and family therapy, facilitated groups for teens and their families, elderly adults, and body-mind group (pain management with Buddhist psychology focus). Other duties included crisis on-call, intakes, initial assessment for medication, and psychological testing. Emphasis on brief therapy, but some work was medium-term.
8/2000 - 6/2001: Internship at Santa Rosa Junior College Student Psychological Services (SPS), Santa Rosa, CA. Conducted drop-in, brief and long-term therapy with individuals and couples, facilitated relationship group, wrote and delivered outreach presentations on relationships, addictions, career. Assisted faculty and campus police with crisis intervention. Clients were students and their partners in late teens to late fifties, multi-racial and ethnic. Worked with relationship and identity issues, addictions, anxiety and mood disorders, and anger management.
6/98 - 10/99: Internship and practicum at Center Point, Inc., San Rafael, CA, providing adult residential substance abuse treatment. Approximately half of clients were mandated by the criminal justice system, about a third had dual diagnoses. Provided individual and group therapy, and facilitated recreational activities. Led ongoing groups for men's issues and grief and loss. Helped assess dual diagnosis clients via clinical interviews and psychological testing.
While pursuing psychology education and training, I earned a living as an award-winning, marketing and technology writer and editor. Lack of funds and regulatory time limitations on license eligibility under my master's degree required me to abandon licensure under that degree. I had to regroup and return to the field 15 years later. My earlier psychological and medical experience and education includes:
5/83 - 10/83: Volunteer, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, San Francisco, CA. Volunteered at the crisis clinic.
4/30 - 3/81: Intern, the Way Home Community Counseling Center, San Francisco, CA. Co-therapist with individual adult clients and their families, did intake interviews, participated in therapist training group.
1968: Volunteer work with developmentally disabled youngsters at Southbury Training School in Connecticut.
Independent Education and Personal Growth
My work as a psychologist is also informed by my spiritual practice, my personal experience in psychotherapy, and the education and training experiences I've pursued independently.
11/09 & 1/10: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) Training, Parts 1 & 2 with Laura Parnell, Ph.D., San Francisco, CA.
7/07: 10-day meditation retreat with Lama Kunzang Rinpoche of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism at The Hermitage, Denman Island, BC, Canada. This was a Mahamudra (Great Seal) retreat investigating the nature of mind, a very profound experience that is a core teaching of this lineage headed by H. H. Gyalwa Karmapa, XVII. Nine days of this retreat were in silence.
9/02: 12-day meditation retreat with Swami Chandrasehkharanand Saraswati, the head of a 500-year-old oral lineage of Kundalini Yoga. This was the experiential culmination of my dissertation research on the Kundalini Seminars of C. G. Jung. Received expert guidance in spiritual practices, which does not involve becoming a member of that lineage. For more information about these retreats, select this link for PKYC.
10/98 - 9/01: Analytic psychotherapy with Pan Coukoulis, Ph.D., including clinical case consultation, dreamwork, interactive field.
(Dates of the following experiences are approximate, as I best remember them.)
10/88 - 11/94: Six-year analysis with the late Donald Sandner, M.D., author, training analyst and former president of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Learned dreamwork, reconnected with emotions, developed ability to contain emotional conflicts and work them through, tapped deeper creativity. Included work with shadow, mid-life transition, relationships, family issues, thinking/feeling split, work pressure and substance abuse.
1/85 - 8/85: Completed 23-day certification training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming™ with Grinder, Delozier and Associates. That training provided NLP™ Practitioner certification for two years. Although I have not renewed my certification, NLP training increased my sensitivity to the subtleties of spoken and body language and helped me refine my ability to do guided imagery.
1980-81: Presented group process model of indoctrination to the late Margaret Singer, Ph.D. and cult exit counselors group (where I was a participant) at invitation of Philip Cushman, Ph.D.
1979-81: Heartsong Advanced Clairvoyant Reading and Healing Program. After my spiritual awakening of 1977, my first spiritual teacher, Rev. Dr. Patrick Young, advised me to train at Heartsong. This is where I learned to perceive the human aura. During this time, I also trained briefly in spiritual healing with Greg Schelkun and Bill Torvund. (Greg can be reached at (415) 459-0680. Bill's website is: http://www.billtorvund.com/.
1975-78: I first began to look inward as a participant in the Human Potential Movement, including several est seminars, where I first became aware of the reality of intuitive perception beyond the usual sensory modalities.
Professional Affiliations
- Member: American, California, Marin County and San Francisco Psychological Associations
Awards
- Creativity Magazine Creativity 95 Certificate of Distinction
- JOEY Award of Excellence, San Jose Film and Video Commission
- 1995 Silver Murphy Award
- How 1995 International Design Competition Award of Merit
- Society for Technical Communication Award of Merit
- National award for ad campaign created for Ford Motor Company while at Wharton School of Business in 1973
- Winner of high school History Prize in 1969