Therapist Profile

My Approach to Helping

I see mental health as the intentional practice of cultivating a peaceful mind and an open heart. Declaring peace in the battle with internal voices and opening our hearts to ourselves with compassion for our unique personal struggle, helps remove barriers to healing and happiness in the present moment. I offer mindfulness-based psychotherapy in individual, couple and group formats. The process is unique in that it marries the practice of mindfulness meditation with cognitive skill building to help relieve anxiety, depression, substance abuse, emotional eating, multi-task stress, and obsessive thinking as well as relationship challenges. Changes experienced now, can be life-long as the tools of breath-body awareness and integration become immediately available to us in times of high stress and confusion. I have trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn, (recently featured on Oprah) father of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and lead MBSR classes. I also teach MB-EAT - Eating Awareness Training, a program created by Dr. Jean Kristeller and supported by NIH grants. I have created Mindfulness-Based Awareness and Compassion Training (MB-ACT) which guides group participants to calm their minds and open their hearts to themselves and others.

More Info About My Practice

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally. Mindfulness allows us to become fully awake in and aware of the moments of our lives ~ not only the difficult and wonderful moments, but the everyday simple unfolding of experience becomes richer when you are aware of body and mind in present time. Anxiety tends to arise from future thinking and depression tends to be linked to ruminating about the past. A practice of training the mind to be more aware of the present can alleviate excessive thinking and worry associated with anxiety and depression. Mindfulness based workshops offer practice in present-moment awareness and experiencing. Individual therapy is enhanced by the mindful meditation and body-mind movement group work. Clients find themselves being more open and trusting when they are able to share in a very safe and friendly group environment, recognizing that others are also working toward getting "unstuck" and growing emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.