ABOUT
My Mission
I empower and advocate for men and women ages 18 to 94 to BE all that you are created to Be.
My Work
As I once heard in an old Western movie, “There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”
I don’t want to waste your time, so going back and forth in understanding your needs requires a well-trained eye, ear, and heart.
The initial call is your brave step into the great wild unknown. I will ask you how you found me or who referred you and will listen for your opening thoughts of pain.
This work is all about YOU. Once you call, put your heels down, hold the reins close; not too tight, sit up straight, and come on in for some shade and a place to rest.
Once you are here, you have started a new kind of emotional adventure. I’ll be right here behind you the whole time.
Analytic Stance
Regaining your balance in life takes self-knowledge, emotional vulnerability and openness to discover what has knocked you off balance if you ever felt this to start with. Like with riding, some horses are trained master horses. Literally, when the rider is posting and trotting, master horses will feel when their rider is off balance in the saddle and will stop dead in their tracks. A rider must regain their position, relax and let the horse know by tapping with their heels against the side of the horse that they are willing to try again before the horse will move forward.
Trying again in life with relationships takes a kind of sensitivity to being open to risk. We will work with what gets in your way of being open by learning how to work with yourself. I will teach you how to understand your night dreams and what the triggers were from the day that prompted these often-disturbing thoughts.
We will work with identifying your thoughts and feelings, and I will track your reactions like a hawk circling the sky above the trail of your life. As you tell me stories, I will give you feedback, insights from you of the patterns of behavior that are driven by unforeseen forces that you never considered before this journey started.
Whether you are sitting on a chair across from me or lying on the couch, we will work in a consistent manner moving in the direction of a new vision of yourself.
About Me
I came into being a trained psychoanalyst as a bit of a pioneer myself.
When I was accepted into training, I was the first Roman Catholic laywoman, Licensed Professional Counselor with a theological background, to be accepted to the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis through the American Psychoanalytic Association.
I was trained by all MDs in the field, so this gem of working and understanding trauma is one that I rely on in my saddlebag of tools to help you.
Through marriage, the birth of three children, working full-time as a therapist, and being a pioneer frame my fundamental beliefs of love, work and play. The power of love and the role of silence in successful work and play fosters an ongoing sense of honoring my inner self.
I have arranged my life to reflect these values. Listening to my heart and the still small voice is what led me to become the Chair of an ongoing national discussion group on the Psychodynamics of Psychoanalysis, Religion, and Spirituality.
Graduate and Faculty Member of New Directions Writing Program for Psychoanalysts, member of the Washington/Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, and Active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association support my 34 years in private practice.
I have been married for 38 years and currently share my home not only with my husband, but Jack, a Bernese Mountain Dog, and two cocker spaniels, Rigo and Hastings. Also, I am a Dressage rider: George, an Irish Sport Horse, shares in my love of discipline and animals. I am a mother of three grown adult children and three grandchildren.