My own path to this work led through changes, traumas, reversals and upheavals. My first graduate degree was a Master of Fine Arts from Boston University.  At the time, I immersed myself in the arts community of Boston: I was a performer, an arts journalist, and adjunct professor at B.U. and Lesley University, where I was connected to the Expressive Arts Therapy program.  I later moved to central Vermont, where for 11 years I owned and directed my dance studio, Studio Bliss: Center for Expressive Movement.  Daily teaching deepened my own understanding of the healing power of creative expression. 

After a major challenge in my personal life, I decided to re-focus my work entirely around healing practice, by becoming a psychotherapist.  I obtained my MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, where I gained a rigorous foundation in Classical Psychology and Psychodynamic practice.  As an intern at the VA in White River Junction Vermont, I completed training in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a specialized form of treatment for complex PTSD.  I later practiced as a clinician in the Early Childhood Mental Health program at Howard Center, VT, where I trained in the ARC Model (Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency) of therapy for pediatric PTSD, as well as Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Development and Child Trauma Therapy.   Working with young children recovering from trauma, I also had the opportunity to work with parents, in particular moms coming out of abusive relationships, which reinforced for me how trauma affects whole family systems and can repeat across generations.  I have worked with adolescents and Autism Spectrum Disorders, and with Veterans dealing with a broad range of mental health issues, as well as PTSD.  Most recently, I spent 5 years at The Villages Health, a large primary care practice serving a 65+ population in The Villages, a fast-growing retirement community.  Here, I worked with adjustment and life-transition issues, families dealing with dementia and end of life care, as well as a focus on alcoholism and substance use disorders.

In all these different settings, in addition to talk therapy, I have continued to offer movement therapy groups—including specialized groups for young children, and for patients struggling with Alzheimers, Parkinson's, and various forms of dementia. 

As a lifelong dancer and poet, I have always worked from the understanding that art itself is a mode of healing.  In the same way, there is poetry in therapy—a dance of associations and insights, co-created by client and therapist.  Within those exchanges, healing takes place—through expression, you create your path to change.