With over 30 years of practice in individual, family and marriage therapy, I assist clients in finding practical solutions to daily life situations.
With 30 years clinical and administrative experience, I have been a South Haven, Michigan-based private practice psychotherapist (LMSW) since 2011, specializing in individual, family, and marriage therapy with interest in substance abuse, and sexual survivors' trauma treatment, in addition to general psychiatric conditions. As a therapist and/or administrator of non-profit, proprietary, community-based, and hospital-based mental health programs which offered both group and individual therapy, I also have directed a hospital-based Employee Assistance Program, in addition to supervising students in internship. In addition, I have more than 30 years in administrative and clinical experience.
Let me tell you more about my training and my approach to therapy:
Education and Training
I was graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College with a double major: a B.A. in Philosophy and B.A. with Honors in English, followed by a Masters in Public Health (with a specialty in Health Administration) from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and a Masters in Social Work from the University of South Carolina. In Michigan, I am a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and in North Carolina, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). A member of the National Association of Social Workers, I have special training in Crisis Debriefing (Critical Incident Stress Management–or CISM).
Specialties
Though I have training in critical incident stress debriefing, I also have worked as a dual diagnosis therapist, with a special interest in substance abuse. In addition, my practice areas include relationships, parenting, divorce, grief, depression, anxiety, anger management, trauma, sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence and coping skills. As an individual, family, and marriage therapist, I work in both individual and group formats with children over 5 years old, teens and adults.
Therapeutic Approach
People who seek my help are my clients, not my patients. In using a psychodynamic and family systems framework, my primary goal is to teach principles by which the client ultimately has the tools/skills to meet life’s challenges – by promoting autonomy, responsibility for the choices one makes, and responsibility for the consequences of those choices. I use the concept of Parent/Adult/Child to convey that the client is the director, producer, and script-writer of his/her own life.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is an essential component of a good therapeutic relationship. However, under threat of harm to oneself or to another, or disclosure of child abuse/neglect, I will break confidentiality in accordance with Michigan or North Carolina law.
