I utilize emotionally focused strategies to work with adults and teens who suffer from anxiety, depression and extreme stress. In addition, I aid those experiencing important life changes, including grief, job loss and isolation. As a couples and family counselor, I’ve had great success utilizing these same emotional tools to strengthen and enhance more effective and long-term communication skills and help to build more fulfilling relationships. I also work with clients suffering from the mental health effects of traumatic brain injury, adjustment disorders, those living with auditory hallucinations and trauma brought on by social and institutional stressors.

Prior to joining Affiliates In Counseling, I was a counselor at several north and west suburban practices where I worked with individuals, couples, families and groups. In addition to extensive training and experience working with veterans, I have years of experience working with those in the LGBTQ community, from adolescents to seniors, as well as aiding parents better understand and communicate with children who are questioning, transitioning or have already declared.

As a professional actor and musician of forty years, I have been helping creative artists realize their potential, vision and goals as both a teacher and peer. As a result, I use music, theatre, film, and popular culture to help patients comfortably express their often unspoken narratives and historical connections.

As for my process, it begins by creating a trusting and collaborative environment where we can explore the story of your life and how it’s been hijacked by past traumatic episodes, isolation, lowered self-esteem, family and societal constraints, institutionalized obstacles, and financial burdens. We’ll look for exceptions to these stories – and then begin to develop the skills necessary to write a new narrative…a more fulfilling way to engage in your daily existence. Concurrently, we’ll explore the ways in which you react to your strongest emotions. We’ll look closely at how those reactions have been set and/or stuck and then endeavor to create new ways to react to them in more constructive and satisfying ways. The goal? To improve our most important relationships and to become unburdened by expectation, regret, anger, depression, stress, and that which we sometimes cannot seem to overcome.

• Insurance : Under the supervision of Dr. John Gobby, Psy.D., I am an in-network provider for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois PPO.
• Education : I have a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Post-Deployment PTSD from Antioch University - Los Angeles. I received my BA in Theatre from Northwestern University.