PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND ACTIVITIES

I have been practicing as a licensed psychologist with individual children, adolescents, and adults and couples and families for more than twenty-five years. I have held a variety of teaching, supervisory, and management positions in the field, but for the past fifteen years have been primarily working as a practitioner, supervisor, and teacher. Currently, I hold appointments as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Medical School and as a Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute (MRI), one of the original centers for research and training in family and brief psychotherapy. At Stanford I have been teaching and supervising in the child psychology and child psychiatry training programs since 1989. I was a member of the Core Faculty for the Child Psychiatry Training Program (through 2001) and continue to teach a seminar on couples and family therapy and supervise in various Stanford Medical School training programs. At MRI I have been involved in a variety of teaching, administrative, and clinical supervisory roles including Director of the MRI Clinic, Director of the Narrative Therapy Externship, and Director of Continuing Education. I am a Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, a member of the American Family Therapy Academy, and a member of the American Psychological Association.

My research, publications, and conference presentations span the areas of children and divorce, gender and power in psychotherapy, approaches to couples and family therapy, family therapy training, and family therapy theory. More recently, I have been presenting workshops for mental health professionals on evidenced based treatments for couples and families. These workshops review the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of different approaches; that is, what works for whom and with what problem. Over the past twenty-five years I have presented at conferences and workshops throughout the US and Canada.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

I received a bachelor’s degree at U.C. Berkeley and my graduate and post-graduate psychology training in the Cambridge/Boston area. I received an M.A. degree in Child Study at Tufts University and my Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston University. While enrolled in my doctoral psychology program I completed two formal pre-doctoral internships in clinical psychology: One at the Cambridge Guidance Center and a second in the Westborough State Hospital/Framingham Youth Guidance Center Training Program. The first internship focused on work with children, adolescents, and families and the second internship offered an emphasis on both working with severely disturbed adults (Westborough State Hospital) and with children and families (Framingham Youth Guidance Center). During my years in Boston, I also completed five years of advanced training in couples and family therapy at the Family Institute of Cambridge.

Following the completion of my PhD I returned to California and worked with adults at the Stanford University Employee Assistance Program for a year. I then returned to Boston for a three year Post-Graduate Fellowship in the Department of Child Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. During this period I also taught family therapy and held the position of Director of Child and Adolescent Services at The Family Center, a non-profit community agency in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Family Center was created to develop innovative services for low income families and to train mental health professionals to work effectively with this population. I returned to California in 1987 to become the president of a training program in family therapy. I have been affiliated with Stanford Medical School since 1989 and the Mental Research Institute since 1987.

OFFICE HOURS

I am generally in the office Monday through Thursday between 10 A.M. and 6:30 P.M. I live in Santa Cruz and work in Palo Alto Monday through Thursday. I am not in the office on Fridays. To make an appointment please call my voice mail at the number listed above.