I am a licensed psychotherapist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I have worked with children, teens and adults since 1985. I was originally trained as a psychodynamic or “talk” therapist. While it seemed my clients felt better, I was not seeing lasting change. Then many years ago I attended a UC Berkeley course taught by my first mentor, Michael Tompkins Ph.D. on evidence based treatment. What this means is treatment that has been found by scientific studies to be the most effective for specific mental health problems. Consistently Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT was found to be the most effective treatment for the most common disorders such as anxiety and depression. I began to avidly study CBT going to workshops, reading books and consulting with masters in the field, including Michael Tompkins, PhD, Christine Padesky, Ph.D. and Jacqueline Persons, Ph.D. Practicing CBT has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done professionally. Currently I work with children, teens, and adults specializing in Anxiety Disorders, including Social Anxiety or extreme shyness, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Separation Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and some types of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. I also treat insomnia and depression.
