My goal is for you to experience passion in your marriage

and fun in your family

I have been teaching parenting classes for 20 years and counseling couples for the last 15. I have helped hundreds of couples strengthen affinity and cooperation, get on the same parenting page and clarify which methods of discipline offer the best results and honor your family's values.

I BRING WIT, WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE TO HELP YOUR FAMILY THRIVE

Marriage Counseling, Teen Counseling in lake Oswego, Parenting

​ The most important factor in children's success is the leadership provided by their parents.

I support parents to clarify their values and lead their children to express those core values in the world through their academic, athletic, creative, and philanthropic achievements and pursuits.

EXPERIENCE

Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice since 2006

KinderCare Education
Parenting Expert
Write blog posts for KinderCare’s social media outreach programs. KinderCare is the nation’s largest provider of early childhood education. They are committed to a whole-child approach to education. These blogs are intended to help busy working parents get the parenting tools, techniques, and information they need to create strong, healthy families.

Positive Discipline Association
Certified Parent Educator
Teach this effective and respectful parenting program to parents of kids from toddler to teen.

Metropolitan Family Services
Speakers Bureau
Spoke to community groups about Metropolitan Family Services programs including Experience Corps, Foster Grandparents, and Project Linkage. Experience Corps provides children with mentoring and tutoring and older adult volunteers the opportunity to use their life experience and skills to make positive contributions in their community.

International Network for Children and Families
Certified Parent Educator, Redirecting Children’s Behavior
Taught the five-week course on Redirecting Children’s Behavior in a variety of settings. Provided one to two-hour workshops on specific parenting topics including Parenting Youth Athletes, Baby Makes Three, Strengthening Your Child’s Self-Esteem and Compassionate Communication NVC.

Youth and Family Assistance
Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Counselor          
Provided crisis support on the telephone hotline.

The Parent Center
Expressive Arts Day Camp Counselor, Santa Cruz
Using the format we developed at JFK, led a group of 10 & 11-year-olds through a week-long expressive arts day camp.  Funding for the camp was provided by the Child Abuse Prevention Council and many of the children were referred because of their high-risk family situations.

Adolescent Counseling Services
Counseling Intern, Gunn High School, Palo Alto
Provided individual and group psychotherapy to high school students.  Presenting problems included academic performance problems, anxiety, bulimia, panic disorder, drug abuse, and adjustment to high school.  Established the school's first therapy group for orthopedically handicapped kids (members included kids with cerebral palsy and severe speech impediments including one who used a computer with a speech synthesizer to communicate in group).

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Expressive Arts Day Camp Counselor
Led a group of elementary school children through a series of expressive arts modalities.  This two-week day camp encouraged the expression of emotions through art, and acceptance and honoring of others' work.  Art modalities added since prior year included kite making, drum making/drumming, and symbol art/textile printing.

Children's Health Council
Research Assistant
Coded videotapes of preschool children as part of the process of development of an assessment tool called the Preschool Experience Game (PEG).  The PEG's purpose is to examine children's perceptions of their daily experiences, ways of coping with daily stresses, and relationships at home and in group settings.  Participated in inter-coder reliability testing and helped refine the coding system.

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Counseling Intern, Cupertino Union School District
Provided individual psychotherapy to an ethnically diverse population of junior high and elementary school children.  Presenting problems included difficult peer relationships, eating disorders, substance abuse, physical abuse/molest/family violence, depression, academic stress, and anxiety.

John F. Kennedy University
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Expressive Arts Camp
Assisted professors in developing curriculum for a master’s level class in Counseling Psychology degree program.  The class developed and successfully ran an expressive arts day camp for children.  Activities included mask making, clay work, movement/dance, talking sticks, dream catchers, storytelling, collage and more.  Parent and child participant feedback was enthusiastic.

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Counseling Intern, JFK Community Counseling Center
Provided counseling in a clinic setting to families, couples, individual adults and children.  Completed telephone intakes, assessments, and referrals.  Presented cases to groups of colleagues for consultation.  Taught parent education classes using STEP program.

Counselor Trainee, Montclaire Elementary School    1994-1995
Provided individual and group psychotherapy to elementary school students and collaborated with their parents, teachers, and principal to establish goals and develop treatment plans.

Stanford University, Department of Behavioral Medicine
Research Assistant

Worked on research projects in a series of eating disorder studies:  ran subjects, coded and entered data, assisted in statistical analysis and write up of findings.

Marin Suicide Prevention Center
Hot Line Counselor

Answered suicide prevention hotline and handled crisis situations. Sent police to intervene in imminent attempts. Suicide crisis phones on Golden Gate Bridge were routed directly to Marin Suicide Prevention Center.

University of Oregon, Department of Psychology
Relief Nursery, Preschool for Abused Children
Worked with physically and sexually abused children in a preschool setting.  Participated in staff meetings to discuss children's behavior and interventions.

Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District, Camp Rivendale
Worked as a camp counselor in a recreational day camp setting with children ages four to sixteen with autism, Down Syndrome, and other developmental disabilities.

EDUCATION
John F. Kennedy University
M.A. Clinical Psychology, December 1995
Master's Thesis – Impulsivity and Emotional Eating in Binge Eating Disorder
Thesis Advisor – Dr. Kathleen Eldredge, Stanford University Department of Behavioral Medicine

University of Oregon
B.A. English, June 1993