It is my intent to provide an environment where my clients feel safe and cared about. A place that supports the release of their pain and suffering and the achievement of their goals and dreams.

I am always humbled by my client’s willingness to open up and allow me to see their pain and share their dreams. I am blessed to have found and to be able to offer very effective resources to help my clients heal, grow and succeed.

For over four decades I have helped my clients to improve their lives by:

• Learning about their style and patterns
• Looking directly at, processing, and dealing their issues
• Using their personal strengths
• Developing their emotional skills
• Improving their ability to problem solve and deal with stress
• Using their challenges to grow and become more and better
• Opening up to who they are and creating a full life

Everyone wants his or her issues to improve or go away. These people will benefit from psychotherapy to help them deal with their serious, deeper, or historical issues. Most people have goals and dreams that they want to achieve. Many people will find coaching very effective for removing blocks, resolving common issues and creating a foundation that will support the creation of the life that they want.

My approach to therapy and coaching is “holistic”: behavioral, brain-based, emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, social, etc. Due to the length of my career, I have worked with most human issues.

I offer psychotherapy and coaching to:

• Individuals
• Couples
• Groups: Coaching only

Addiction Recovery

The main focus of my professional career has been addiction treatment, specifically alcohol and drug addiction treatment. I have also worked with a range of addictions, such as food, gambling, sex, and smoking. I have worked in many setting, including:

• Emergency rooms
• Medical detoxification units
• Non-medical detoxification units
• ¼–way houses
• ½-way houses
• Outpatient Clinics
• Outpatient treatment programs
• Inpatient treatment programs

All addictions may look different on the surface, but they involve a similar brain addiction. The brain neurotransmitter Dopamine gets spiked when an abusing or addicted person is “triggered” to use, gets stressed, or uses. This is true whether the addiction is to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or acting out sexually. It’s likely that future research will show other addictions also have this Dopamine connection. After a few months of recovery from any addiction, the journey of recovery is pretty much the same for all addictions.

The evidence of my thorough understanding of the process of recovering from addictions is my comprehensive book, Thriving Beyond Addiction: A Complete User-Friendly Guide [link].

Relationships

Most people want to be in a connected, intimate, romantic relationship, yet most of those people struggle around doing so. This is sad, as an intimate partnership is one of the greatest experiences most of us can have. People struggle due to the:

Fear of:

• Emotional Intimacy
• Loss of Self
• Loss of the Partner: leaving or death

Inability to:

• Apologize or Forgive
• Trust or Bond
• Deal with the Intensity
• Difficulty in expressing Affection

Lack of:

• Separation-Individuation
• Knowledge: no role models
• Non-Completion of a Past Relationship(s)
• Personal Insight
• Other Severe Distractions

Personal Issues:

• Addictions
• Poor Boundary
• Personality Style
• Poor Self Image
• Separation-Individuation

Personal Patterns that Undermine the Relationship:

• Avoidance
• Abuse: verbal, emotional, physical
• Beliefs: about self or relationships
• Criticalness or Blame
• Defensiveness
• Immaturity
• Poor Judgment
• Low Self-Esteem
• Lying
• Perfectionism
• Personal Space
• Rigidness
• Unwillingness

Poor Communication Skills

Stress

Trauma

• Understand that in most relationships:
  • Issue that can be resolved
  • Your desirable personal traits can be embraced
  • The essential resources can be found

The question is, do you (and your partner) see enough in the other person and want your relationship enough, to do what it takes to be create a desirable relationship.