Counseling
Transition. Loss. Conflict. Identity shift. Existential crisis. Depression. Anxiety. Difficult choices. Feeling stuck or shut down. Feeling out of control. Wanting to live a deeper life. These are just some of the emotional challenges that are part of being human, that everyone struggles with at one time or another, and that motivate the people I see to undertake the courageous inner work of psychotherapy.
Therapy can sometimes look like problem-solving. Sometimes it’s about understanding the impact of past injuries on life today. It all starts with cultivating awareness of what’s going on right now, what you want more of in your life, what you want less of, and what gets in the way.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” – Carl Jung
I am a New York state-licensed psychotherapist. I completed at four-year clinical fellowship at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy in 2000, and I have maintained a private practice in midtown Manhattan since then. I have continued to expand my skills through training in sex therapy, couples therapy, life coaching, and EMDR, which has been acknowledged as one of the most effective treatments for trauma.
Just as helpful as my therapy training and practice is my commitment to mindfulness meditation. Starting with a retreat co-facilitated by Jack Kornfield and Stanislav Grof in 1992, I have taken a number of 10-day vipassana retreats with Kornfield, Tara Brach, and other teachers, as well as several wilderness retreats. My meditation practice, my grounding in breathwork and bodywork, and my therapy training feed the work that I do on a daily basis.
I work with a wide variety of people and issues but I do have a couple of specialties:
“The Guest House”
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
Still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)