23H East Market Street

Rhinebeck, NY 12572

(845) 473-4675

My Philosophy...

Like my teachers’ teacher, Milton Erickson, I believe the practice of psychotherapy should adapt itself to the individual seeking treatment rather than demanding that the person fit some preconceived theory. My approach emphasizes individually tailored solutions that build on a person’s strengths and make creative use of their so called weaknesses.

There is a strong effort to integrate body, mind, and spirit and to utilize both conscious and unconscious resources.  It is my belief that cultivating conscious awareness is the key ingredient to a healthy and creative life.  When a person is able to witness the flow of energy, sensation, information, and thought that is his or her ongoing experience, he or she can respond creatively to the moment as opposed to responding automatically via habit. Simultaneously, while fostering increased self-awareness, I encourage a healthy respect of unconscious process. Here again, I tend to treat the unconscious as a source of wisdom and experiential knowledge rather than some seething cauldron of dangerous impulses.

I view psychotherapy as a collaborative process.  I bring 50+ years of personal experience and 30+ years of professional expertise to that process and request the same level of commitment from you.  I also recognize that psychotherapy may be only a part of the solution and am willing, with your permission, to cooperate with other health care providers you may be seeing.  Furthermore, I encourage the examination of a person’s social and familial connections for additional resources.

In order for psychotherapy to be useful, it should be able to assist someone in examining and managing a particular life problem.  Such work should be efficient, effective and concise.  Thirteen years of working in a managed care environment has taught me how to do that well.

However, there are also times amidst the hustle and bustle of modern living when some of us may catch hold of a strand of something deeper ― what Wordsworth described as “intimations of immortality”— a sense of some larger connection; a need to explore and expand definitions of who I am and what is my purpose in being here. Within such a context, therapy becomes a vehicle for cultivating deeper awareness and developing “right living”. By “right living” I do not mean some rigid moralistic position, but rather a sensitive examination of the personal meanings an individual constructs to make sense of and to affirm one’s life. It is here that I bring a unique perspective culled from my background in Philosophy, Hypnosis, the Arts, Behavioral Medicine, Aikido, Psychology, and Meditation. For those who wish to explore these deeper levels of existence, I respectfully stand ready to assist.