Professional: As noted in other pages on this website, I am a licensed psychologist in Madison, WI, and I specialize in individual therapy and marital and relationship counseling. I see people for a wide range of problems, and have been in practice for over 25 years.
I also worked for 17 years, part-time, as a faculty member of the Mercy Health System Family Medicine Residency Program in Janesville, WI. In that position, I worked with new primary care physicians (called "residents" while in this training) to enhance their "bedside manner" and listening skills. I also taught them about mental health and alcohol/drug problems, and how to helping patients with "health behavior change" (e.g., how to lose weight, exercise more, or quit smoking). I also helped the residents with managing their own stress during their residency training.There is a lot of overlap between this work with the Family Medicine residents, and my psychotherapy work with clients. I tried to help the residents be more "psychotherapeutic" in their "medical" work: There is lots of research that demonstrates that the quality of the doctor-patient relationship and of the physician's listening skills are related to patient satisfaction and health outcomes (as well as physician satisfaction with their work!). At the same time, I got lots of experience observing (i) a more "medical" approach to mental health problems (i.e., medication); (ii) the two-way connection between stress and physical symptoms/illness; and (iii) the challenges patients have with their medical doctors (and vice versa!), especially patients who have chronic and/or medically unexplained conditions, and those using controlled substances. This helps me with clients in my therapy practice who have such problems.
Education:
PhD: University of Colorado, Boulder. BA: Princeton University.
Personal:
I'm originally from New York City, and I still have family there and love to visit. I spent my graduate school years in Boulder, Colorado (a wonderful, beautiful place!), and I've lived in Madison now for over 30 years. I'm married and have two adult children. In my free time, I enjoy bicycling, cross country skiing, spending time at the beach (Cape Cod, Big Sur, and Hawaii are favorites), traveling, reading, and spectator sports.
