The person, couple or family caught in rigid patterns creates more painful experience. The way out of such tight, unhappy loops is to learn new ways of thinking, behaving, and feeling.

Psychotherapy is about this kind of learning. Awareness, of oneself and of others; joy, in what is and what is possible; growth, in understanding and in willingness to act; flexibility in body mind and spirit; healthy choices, healthy self-direction, and a new sense of optimism are the hallmarks of successful psychotherapy.

I value my clients’ strengths and their need for professional and competent services. I value my clients’ right to privacy and their need to have a safe and supportive place in which to explore, re-evaluate and change their experience. I believe, with many others, that over-managed insurance does only dis-service to clients. The brief interventions "allowed" by many "plans" are not therapeutic. The client who accepts a limited, symptom focused, treatment often ends by feeling rushed and dismissed rather than helped to find a new way of being successful in life. I offer payment arrangements so that my clients can have the help they want. I work with clients whose insurance companies are not invasive of insured’s privacy. I work as an "off-plan" psychologist for those whose plans would otherwise direct and invade the therapist-client relationship.

I value the integrity of my colleagues who practice in the mental health disciplines with professionalism, self-respect and commitment to the sensitive and confidential nature of the work. Because of this, I give time and money to the activities of the National Coalition of Mental Health Care Professionals and Consumers, the American Mental Health Alliance-USA, and the American Mental Health Alliance-Oregon.