ABOUT
This is about your concern.
My work is about you, so this page is about you. On your first visit, you may not know what exactly to talk about, you may not know how to do this, or you may know exactly what you want to work on.
You might have a relationship pattern you want to eliminate or a habit you’re dying to break. You might be itching to prove someone wrong or desperate to hear that someone really is wrong.
You might just have a nagging feeling that something is missing.
Why do I keep choosing partners who leave me? Why do I keep pushing people away?
I’m drinking myself to death. I just don’t think I deserve a successful life.
Focused work results in change.
It amazes me how you, my clients, will always change after working with me for a while.
Whatever your focused (or unfocused) issue might be, clarity, hope, and agency are coming – and your life will change.
There is a process to healing.
You will probably laugh more than you expect, and you will almost certainly cry – when you need.
All of us, every one of us, comes to therapy because we’ve been running from pain. Those who are wise and lucky and gifted let the therapy space be the place where the pain catches up and comes out.
We all hurt, and some of us hurt a lot. You will not be overwhelmed when you open up and share. It is not too much to bear… unless you choose to keep carrying it and stuffing it down – and with it, all the anger, addictive processes, self-hatred, fear, and grief.
My job is to identify with your true self and walk with you toward healing. I will not collude with the false self and reinforce a mask that keeps you isolated and alone.
I offer you a safe space for change.
You will be able to relax in my office. Have a cup of hot tea or fresh coffee. Wrap yourself in a blanket.
Bring in your dreams, even if you think they’re completely irrelevant or totally crazy.
Let me enter your world with you – it makes a lot more sense than you think, and I am passionate about helping you lighten your load and find your path.
All your experience meets all of my experience: if you’ve read this far, you’d probably love to work with me, and I would love to work with you.
About me
My Professional Background
You might be curious about my training. I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology, as well as a Masters in French Literature and another one in Divinity. I taught for years at UCLA and at Belmont University.
My doctorate focused on developing gentle path for intimacy for couples, adapting monastic prayer practices which themselves have ancient roots in Jewish study. I call this practice lectio intima.
Before becoming a therapist, I taught Spanish for three years and have studied five other languages. I am the only therapist in Nashville who also works in German and French.
I have a deep gratitude and respect for 12-Step programs; that process and language have affected me profoundly. I continue to engage with others and study new movements in psychotherapy, and hope to enrich my work for the rest of my life. Here is a link to a podcast where I talk about recovery from spiritual abuse.
Something Personal
I run, read, write, and swim. I love: the Nashville Symphony and songwriter listening spaces; new recipes and proven favorites; finding beautiful things and caring for them.
I’m an abuse survivor, in recovery; a highly sensitive person (HSP); an artist, a linguist, a momentary mystic; a deeply spiritual follower of Jesus and Mary Magdalene with light religious attachments.
I love Christian mysticism, with Finley, Merton, Keating, and Rohr; Rumi and the Sufis; Torah study with the rabbis; Gustav Mahler, Eva Cassidy, Al Jarreau, and Arvo Pärt.
I have three adult children, a brilliant and beautiful therapist who is my bride and partner in life, and three cats who love and harass me. I am a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapist (LCPT#65) in the State of Tennessee.