My qualifications

  • Professional counselor since 1981
  • Master's Degree in Psychology
  • Former Certified Montessori teacher
  • Father and step-father for 20 years
  • Mental Heath Therapist at Hall Health Clinic
  • Mental Health Consultant
I have treated people with a host of emotional and behavioral difficulties including but not limited to depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress, bereavement, substance abuse, marital problems, and parenting problems. I have worked with individuals of all ages and cultures, with couples and families, and with groups.

I have been doing phone counseling and consulting for many years now.  When the possibility first arose I thought it would never work, but, skeptical as I was, I responded to a request and tried it.  I found it worked as well as sitting with a person, and in some way better. 

My Philosophy 

"Instant forgiveness, total accountability" *

I observe that "Life takes care of itself".  That is, it is innately healthy and inclined to restore itself to health when "ill".  Being alive, we have all the resources we need (mind, thought and consciousness) to live "the good life" and solve any "problem" that we have ever and will ever encounter. 

I see it as our job is to facilitate nature to heal itself when "ill". 

I am interested in how we develop emotionally from infancy to old age, how we communicate unconsciously in our lives, and in the role that our unexamined beliefs play in our suffering.
 
 I love this work and I welcome anyone who would like to contact me.

*You are accountable because until you see the illusion (that you, the other, the world is bad) for what it is, you suffer.  Forgiveness is instant in that the instant you see past the illusion to the Truth (that you, the other, the world is innocent) your suffering ends and you are left with nothing but peace, joy and gratitude.  


A brief Biography for those of you who would like to know more about me 


How I got into the field: 
I was one of those youth who had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I know I was interested in fields like psychology, sociology and anthropology.  I thought college would help me figure it out.  When it didn't I dropped out. 
The next thing I knew I was reading and completely taken Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work.  I enrolled in the AMI Montessori training course in Mexico City and ended up being recruited to help start a bi-lingual Montessori School in Austin, Texas by my dear friend Stephen Jackson.  While I sensed that being a Montessori teacher was not a destination, but a stepping stone to what was next, I also felt convinced that I needed to spend three years in the classroom to really "get" it.

In the middle of my second year I was conducting our routine parent feedback interviews, which we did in lieu of giving grades, when a distraught single mother, tearfully complained, "I just don't know what to do.  I have a new boy friend who I dearly love who demands that I pick between him and my three kids".  Out of the blue it came to me to ask her to imagine herself 30 years in the future looking back on her life and seeing which decision she could live with better.  Instantly her face lit up, she thanked me profusely, stating she had been struggling with this for weeks and no one, not even her minister had been able to help her; and now it was patently clear what she needed to do.  In that moment I knew I was to be a mental health counselor.

Different roles I have played:
  • Bilingual Montessori teacher
  • Mental Health Coordinator for Head Start
  • Bilingual, bi-cultural mental health and substance abuse counselor for Latinos
  • Substance abuse counselor for Department of Corrections
  • Coordinator of counseling in a family and youth services agency
  • Psychotherapist in private practice
  • Consultant and "special population" consultant for several agencies
  • Behavioral health therapist in outpatient medical clinic
  • Mental health therapist at University of Washington student clinic
  • Associate Director of the Mental Health Clinic at Hall Health
Why I stay in the field:
Helping people navigate through and out of their distress and into high levels of mental well being feels like my calling, and a gift I have to offer.  There is no end to learning about why we suffer and how to end suffering and about what our true nature is.  Beyond the field of psychology, I turn to philosophy, spiritual teachings, literature, and quantum physics among other sources of learning. (see "wisdom reading list").  And of course, to my own inner wisdom, which is not "my own" but which we all "own" in the sense that we all have a line to "universal wisdom".
 
 
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