Tell us about your work:
Since high school I have been obsessed with the question, “What is healing and how can I help it happen?” I am passionate about social change and planetary healing, but right now my path is working with one client at a time on “anxiety reduction and trauma repair.” I am more than a little in love with Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing approach which has brought me closer to both understanding and providing healing than anything else I have discovered. It is grounded in biology and, like the very best therapies, takes me to a place of profound respect for the client’s healing capacity thus opening the door for the spirit to soar. And when that happens the planet feels one heartbeat stronger.
I began my career working with body-oriented psychotherapy when I started as a Drama Therapist in the ‘70s. Currently I’m fulfilling my love of groups through the interactive classes I teach in the MFT program at National University. Multicultural counseling and Group Psychotherapy are my two favorite classes to teach.
My work with the global community is as a network provider for Survivors of Torture International, San Diego. (I encourage anyone interested to join this network: SOTI does the most important work and it is profoundly rewarding www.notorture.org.)
What do you do for play?
My husband Ron and I are busy community activists and spend time supporting candidates who care about the poor, stopping torture and rescuing the environment. I also love to honor my French ancestry by sipping hot chocolate at sidewalk cafés, and my English roots by watering my flowers and, if there is an uncluttered afternoon, painting them..
What do you value most about your membership in SDNC-CAMFT?
I am proud to belong the lovely group of North County therapists that meets in the classroom where I often teach at National University. The experiential mini-trainings give me inspiration. And it is great to have a CAMFT on-call lawyer when I have some thorny questions Tell us one thing most people don’t know about you:
When I was a 15 a doctor told me that I would never live a normal life. It turned out he was quite right! But not for the reason he had in mind which was my diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis since the age of 10. I mention this because UC is one of those invisible illnesses that people don’t like to discuss. UC’s gift to me was my quest to discover the mind/body connections. It has also given me a lot of compassion for working with those with chronic illnesses – and also hope as I have found Somatic Experiencing and other paths to my own wellness. |
