Clinical Psychologist
Welcome
Welcome to my web site. I am a psychologist in Issaquah, Washington with over 25 years experience as a therapist. This website has information about my practice, my specialties, and my philosophy about therapy. Feel free to call me and ask if there are other things you would like to know about my practice.
Psychotherapy is a powerful method for changing and improving your life. It can be difficult, but it is rewarding, and typically leads to a deeper understanding of yourself, and a clearer sense of how to make choices that will lead to contentment, satisfaction, and joy.
As a therapist, I work with people on a wide variety of issues. Often people come to therapy to work on their closest relationships, both family relationships and romantic relationships. Depression and anxiety are two common expressions of the difficulties of life. They are tied to our biology, and also tied to hardships, and losses and fears, and to the way that we make sense out of everything that happens to us.
I also work with people dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction, including helping people rebuild their lives and repair their relationships after they have gotten an addiction under control.
If a person is in crisis, or in a life transition, it is often helpful to do brief therapy to get through that situation. But if someone is dealing with depression or other difficulties that have persisted over several years, effective therapy typically involves taking a deeper look at a number of things. It usually involves carefully exploring the patterns in your feelings, your choices, your relationships, and the workings of your life. The goal is to figure out how to make the important parts of life work well: How to have close and satisfying relationships, how to be satisfied and happy with yourself, how to work through painful things and have a life that is full of joy and meaning. The payoff of therapy, which can often be hard work, is that life becomes richer and more satisfying.
Sometimes, in the chaos of day to day life, the most important questions seem to get lost.
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What matters the most to you?
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What do you find meaningful and fulfilling?
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Is there a way to live your life so that you care about it more deeply, and stay closer to to what matters to you each day?
If there is a sense of something missing, or something unfulfilled, therapy can explore that, and help you find your way to a more meaningful way of living.
Choosing a therapist is a very important decision. If you would like to know more about my practice in addition to the information here, feel free to call and talk to me. I answer my phone personally when I am not in session, and I return calls within 24 hours.
About Me
My History: Who Am I
And How Did I Come to Be This Way?
Here is how I came to be who I am professionally. I'll start with the ending: I have been a psychologist in private practice since 1995. During that time I have worked a diverse range of clients, to address a broad array of issues.
Practicing in Bellevue in the heart of the tech industry, I have worked with people from many different countries. I have worked with many LGBT clients over the years, and with people from many different religions and backgrounds. I believe that part of my role is to work to understand the unique experience of each person who comes to see me.
I have always had strong interests in math and science, combined with a passion for literature, history, psychology, and philosophy. Every year during high school I went to fiction and poetry writing camps, but my bachelor's degree is in structural engineering. In my work as a psychologist I blend these two sides. On the one hand, I am logical and I am constantly trying to figure out how things work. On the other hand, I believe that we are deeply emotional creatures, and that love and human connection are at the heart of what makes us happy and what gives life meaning.
My mental health experience began in 1980 with extensive volunteer involvement in the Princeton Peer Counseling Program. I was involved as a participant, a program coordinator and a trainer of new counselors during all four years of college. I was getting an engineering degree while spending most of the rest of my time teaching counseling skills and coordinating a peer counseling program.
After two years back in Seattle designing freeway ramps and bridges, I went to graduate school in clinical psychology, at the University of Illinois. My dissertation was on the experiences of low income African American men entering the workforce after high school. The heart of this work involved interviews trying to understand the experience of young men around race and poverty and hope versus hopelessness in Champaign, IL. Again, part of what I bring to my work as a therapist is a deep value for understanding experiences different from one's own, and a sense that the heart of human connection is empathy and understanding the experiences of others..
My Education
My Education
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1995 Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology University of Illinois
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1993-1994 Clinical Psychology Internship Indiana University School of Medicine
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1989 M.A. in Clinical Psychology University of Illinois
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1984 Bachelor of Science in Civil and Structural Engineering, With High Honors, Princeton University
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1980 Redmond High School, Redmond, Washington