About

“My head is fine.  My body isn’t.”

These words were the mantra of a confused thirteen year old girl who faked at being fine most of the time, but occasionally let slip that something was very wrong; something she couldn’t and didn’t dare name. So, she spoke in code, lived in disguise, and managed to mask a broken body with a show of strength and will.

That girl was me. She is the reason I am a therapist. She was smarter than she knew, braver than she realized, and foolish enough to think she could heal without a single person knowing she was wounded. It sometimes feels as if she sits with me and my clients, guiding us toward understanding and compassion. Girls, boys, and kids of all genders are wiser than we give them credit for. They and their ever-adapting nervous systems are observing and absorbing the world in which they live. Children have much to teach us if we trust them and listen. It took me longer than I wish to admit to trust my younger self because the stakes were high and my truth unwelcome. I know first hand how much courage it takes to know yourself and speak your truth when the world is sure you are wrong.

I am a little older than thirteen now (fifty-four in fact). The love of my life is the man to whom I have been married for 32 years. Together we have raised two kids and three dogs. The relationship we have created has taught me that we all need someone who loves us just as we are. Love like this is not a gift, it is a practice. The work I do as a therapist keeps me curious, about everything. I am grateful.

I moved to Maine in 1989 after growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. I attended Friends School in Baltimore, a Quaker school where I learned the art of self-compassion, the practice of consensus-building, and the skill of defense on the lacrosse field. As a teenager I was also a practicing artist. I studied drawing and painting at Friends and at Maryland Institute of Art. I came to Maine to go to Colby College where I hoped to study art, play lacrosse, and be in the woods. Once at Colby I was introduced to the field of Art Therapy which set me on the path to graduate school for social work. My hope was to bring art-making into the therapy room to share what I knew about the power of art to heal.

After graduating from Colby I attended Boston College in pursuit of my Masters of Social Work. I quickly became immersed in the study of child development, abuse, and attachment disorders. After finishing graduate school I worked with young families in Lewiston, Maine. I offered in-home crisis support as well as parent education to facility healthy parent-child bonding.

For much of my career I worked in community mental health settings; first at Tri-County Mental Health in Lewiston, then Shoreline Mental Health in Brunswick, and then Sweetser in Portland. I worked mostly with young kids and their parents in the first half of my career. I specialized in play and art therapy and Jungian Sand Play therapy. I helped parents listen and learn the language of children. Over time I began to see fewer young kids and focused my attention on caring for adolescents and adults. I left community mental health in 2005 to open my private practice in Portland, where I have been ever since. Running my own business has freed me up to study and share with my clients therapy, coaching and consultation which are authentic and effective forms of treatment. I am grateful every day (almost every day) for the honor of doing this work and the trust my clients and I create with each other.

In the 1990’s I also coached girls high school lacrosse and field hockey teams at Catherine McAuley and Deering High Schools in Portland. I learned as much from my players as they learned from me. One of my best memories was bringing my first child to practices with me and watching the girls protect him from flying lacrosse and hockey balls.

Over the course of my career I have spent countless hours consulting with lawyers, writing letters on behalf of abused and neglected children, and testifying in family court advocating for the needs of kids who have precious few rights in the eyes of the law. I don’t do as much of this public-facing work these days. Most of my time now is spent sitting with adolescents and adults in my beautifully warm office in Portland and my remote office in Western Maine. I offer body-based talk therapy, and sometimes art therapy to help the people I meet befriend their bodies and their minds. My work is informed by the children who taught me how to be real, including my own children, and my courageous, patient younger self. Thank you all. I vow to keep listening.

Below is a poem I wrote which conveys what therapy and the therapeutic relationship means to me.