I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California (#44053). I have rich clinical and life experience and have counseled couples, adult individuals, adolescents, and families since 2001. I began my practicum training counseling individuals and couples as a clinical intern at YMCA Youth and Family Services in San Diego.I am extensively training in a model of therapy known as Bowen Family Systems Therapy. I continue to study Bowen theory through attending conferences, consultation groups, and in my readings. My practice is also informed by existential and psychodymic principles. Shortly after receiving my doctorate in marriage and family therapy at AIU, I taught graduate and undergraduate classes in marriage and family therapy at Alliant International University in San Diego. Alliant International University is a COAMFTE accredited school, the highest accreditation a school can receive in training MFT graduate students. I have taught classes such as spiritual and developmental aspects of aging, parent child therapy, MFT techniques, and MFT theories. Recently, I guest lectured to graduate students on Bowen Family Systems Theory at San Diego State University. Today I am busy in my private practice in San Diego, CA, where I offer affordable counseling for individuals and couples. It is truly an honor and a privilege to practice relationship counseling, marriage counseling., and individual counseling.

Additionally, I have recently been published in an academic textbook detailing a family systems treatment for the impaired physician and his/her family. This chapter appears in an updated academic textbook on special populations suffering from alcoholism and addiction. The textbook is entitled Alcoholism and Substance Abuse in Diverse Populations, Second Edition (eds. Gary W. Lawson and Ann W. Lawson). The chapter is entitled "A Family Systems Treatment of the Impaired Physician." This book has already been used in many training programs for graduate students.

I became fully licensed in 2006 and my private practice is located in the heart of the Mission Valley area of San Diego. As a professional who specializes in marriage counseling and relationship counseling, I view my model of practice as more of an approach to life than a toolbox of techniques. How one lives in relationships depends on the way one thinks about one's own part in any dynamic.

I grew up in a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I am the proud mother of two wonderful daughters and I have two grandsons. I received my bachelor's degree in English from California State University Northridge in 1970. For several years, I taught English and journalism at the junior high school and high school levels. After raising my family and launching them, I returned to graduate school in 2001. At the respective ages of 56 and 59, I earned my masters and doctoral degrees in marital and family therapy from the COAMFTE-accredited program at Alliant International University.

I am a proud member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. 

When I am not working, I enjoy long walks, playing piano, reading, viewing live theatre and concerts, writing poetry, and exercising my heart and mind by connecting with friends and family.