About Me
How did I get here:
My career in mental health has spanned more than 35 years. I have enjoyed the challenges and rewards of engagement in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. I attended Emory University where I received a B.S. in nursing, followed by a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Nursing from Boston University. My early education has supported me in the continuation of learning.
My specialty has been in Dissociative Disorders and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have also treated depression, anxiety disorders and attention deficit disorders. My practices have been located on the North Shore of Boston, Boston, and currently Cambridge, MA, and Rockport, MA.
I am grateful for the experience I obtained early in my career. I was instrumental in initiating the rape crisis program, including training, at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center). My experience included supervising psychiatric nurses in the emergency room. From there I relocated, managing an inpatient psychiatric unit at a hospital on the North Shore. I initiated a women’s treatment program when PTSD from childhood sexual and physical abuse was being recognized. I taught many workshops in the hospital setting, as well as psychiatric consultation for medical conditions.
My training includes certification by the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, with a focus on healing traumatic neural pathways, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, level I (AEDP), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR, Adult Attachment Disorders, various trainings in Internal Family Systems, and many courses and workshops related to my specialty and prescription practice; I have also taught various workshops and trainings. I served on the board of the New England Society for Trauma and Dissociation for 6 years. I currently offer consultation to clinicians treating DD (DID) and C-PTSD.
Rather than focusing on diagnosis, my work has strongly centered on the individual, with the strength of the relationship being central to my work. The uniqueness of every individual as special and worthy has motivated my care and compassion in the implementation of the treatment most helpful for that individual. I have valued the spirit and soul of each individual as I skillfully determined the medicine and lifestyle needed for change, as well as the support and teaching most effective for improving the quality of their life.
My early years as a psychotherapist were influenced by Shamanic practices, as well as a commitment to meditation and mindfulness; these have enabled me to be the channel for change needed by my clients, always supporting the light they hold within which connects them to their own inner healer and wisdom.
In the Fall of 2019, I trained with Phil Wolfson MD from the Ketamine Training Institute in CA. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) has changed the course of my life. Though I have retired my practice as a psychotherapist and psychopharmacologist, my commitment to offering KAP is active; this form of treatment has deeply informed me of the value, beauty, peace, and so much more, that Ketamine and psychedelics can bring to the therapeutic table. KAP, through journey work, not only offers relief from untoward symptoms, but deepens one’s sense of self, as Self, and as one who has a soul and spirit that strengthens connections in many facets of life, internally and externally. I have found that my training and practice as a nurse practitioner have enhanced my efforts in offering KAP, both as an evaluator, prescriber, and therapist facilitating ,and partnering with, the client’s healing journey.
I am currently a member of the training team for the Psychedelic Therapy Boston, psychedelictherapyboston.com., which has provided experiential KAP trainings to the Boston community since March of 2023.
Current Trainings:
Certified in Ketamine Assisted psychotherapy by the Center for Transformational Psychotherapy and Ketamine Training Center, 2019.
Meditation and Psychotherapy: Learning from Non-Ordinary States Harvard Medical School, 2021
Psychedelic -Assisted psychotherapy: Promises and Perils, Harvard Medical School, Feb., 2021
Certified Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems, Scotts Valley, CA March, 2023
Psychedelic Science and Spirituality, psychedelic Society of VT., Sept. 2023
Certified, Psychedelic Therapy and Integration, Fluence International, June 2024
Ethics and Equity in Psilocybin Services, Fluence International, June 2024
Intoxication and Dissociation in Psychedelic -assisted Therapy, June 2024