I am a licensed counseling psychologist in private practice in Fort Collins, Colorado with over twenty years of clinical experience at the doctoral level. I received my Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1985 and provided counseling services at the Master’s level from 1985 until 1990 when I received my Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University, a program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). I completed my pre-doctoral clinical internship in an APA accredited program at Shasta Community Mental Health Center in Redding, California.
In 2005, I received the Lambert Award in recognition of consistently good outcome measures in my work with clients. I am a member of the American Psychological Association and a charter member of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science.
I am trained and experienced in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). I am also a certified EMDR Level II clinician and use it in the treatment of specific traumas.
I have a keen interest in the clinical application of mindfulness meditation and its effects on health and quality of life in individuals living with serious illness, especially cancer. In 2005, I trained with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the originator of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Mindfulness meditation has been proven beneficial to health and well-being and I include meditation practice in my daily life.
Prior to starting my private practice in 1998, I served as the staff psychologist at a rural community mental health center in Show Low, Arizona, a tri-ethnic community in Northern Arizona. Upon re-locating to Fort Collins in 1993, I became the clinical manager of an intensive outpatient mental health center where I developed treatment programs and provided clinical supervision and training to staff therapists. I was in private practice with Stress Management Family Counseling Center from 1999 until the summer of 2006 when I relocated my private practice to its current location.
Generally, people seek the help of a clinical psychologist or therapist either when they are experiencing acute distress from situational events or when they are experiencing a loss of vitality in their life. Often people experience both at the same time. During these times it is common to feel overwhelmed. If not overwhelmed, then feelings of quiet desperation, even paralysis may be present. I believe effective treatment helps clients regain their sense of vitality and direction in life. Good therapy also provides a place where it is safe to have a conversation about one’s deepest fears and desires. Such conversations can be transformative and can open the doors to self-compassion, creativity, and the psychological flexibility needed to respond effectively to life’s challenges.
Most of us want to live a rich, full, meaningful life, yet our own thoughts and feelings can become a barrier to this. Often it is not the particular situation that pains us, but our own mind that is the source of our pain and confusion. When we become entangled in our troubling thoughts we lose the energy to engage in the aspects of our lives that are most important to us such as relationships, our health, and meaningful work to name a few. We can become so focused on painful thoughts, feelings and experiences that we are unable to focus on what really matters in life—our values and our goals.
In my view, effective therapy helps you re-engage with what you value. I am not speaking of religious or moral values, though they can overlap with life values, but simply that which matters most to you. Sometimes people are quite fuzzy about their values in this regard and this is why a substantial part of the therapy I do with clients includes values clarification. When we know what direction we want to be moving in (toward what we value) and we know what is preventing us from moving, the work of therapy becomes much more direct and purposeful. Therapy is not just about feeling good, but about creating a value-driven life. A life dominated by pain and a struggle to avoid pain is draining to say the least and it is often movement away from our values. We may not be able to get rid of the pain, but we can change our relationship with pain such that we are moving toward our values. We can open up more possibilities for ourselves. We can live more fully in the present moment rather than just going through the motions on “autopilot.”
If you read about ACT therapy (see www.ContextualPsychology.org) you will find that my treatment philosophy mirrors the principles of ACT. In my twenty years of practice I have not found a therapy model that aligns as closely with my experiences in how people change as ACT. For this reason, it is the therapeutic approach I use most often although I am by no means limited to ACT. I use elements of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) when it makes sense, for example in treating Panic Disorder or Social Phobia. The bottom line is that I strive to engage my clients in doing what works for them and I use interventions that are supported by empirical research (as opposed to pure theory). I typically expect that my clients do something different from what they have been doing so that they change their behavioral response to their problems and their lives become more workable.
