Biography and mission

Most of my life has been devoted to integrating my external life with my inner life. I have been a business entrepreneur, military officer, graphics production artist, salesman, photographer, singer, actor, commodities trader, project manager, computer programmer, and recruiter/human resources consultant. For this reason, I bring a tremendous amount of life experience to my practice in psychology. I have been happily married for over 35 years which helps me in my family and marriage therapy work.

My inner life has been one of studying Eastern Philosophy (Chinese, Japanese, and East Indian history, art and literature). After leaving military service in Southeast Asia, I separated overseas and lived in Tokyo, Japan. I studied Japanese, Zen Buddhism and Aikido, a martial art, for over two years before going to Switzerland to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Once I returned to the States, I began to teach meditation. On a retreat, someone asked me if I ever thought of using meditation to help people heal from psychological problems. This became the turning point of my life.

I became interested and did an internship at St Vincent’s hospital in New York City in the hospice and Supportive Care area, providing support to people who were terminally ill. I experienced this opportunity as tremendously uplifting. I began to study healing methods, energy work, and spiritual counseling. I enrolled in a 3-year Gestalt Institute Training program and so began my calling by learning how to be a psychotherapist.

In my work as a recruiter and human resources consultant, I helped others develop their career identity, and provided staffing and talent management for corporate clients such as Citigroup, Lehman, JP Morgan Chase, Swiss Reinsurance, MetLife, and The Bank of New York. I have worked on issues of motivation, performance and employee relations issues, organizational development, and career planning for corporate executives and realized that major psychological issues also affected those who were not poor and did not lack an education.

In my work as a Substance Abuse Counselor, and eventually as a Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC), I continue to provide support and encouragement to individuals addicted to drugs and alcohol. I focus on the psychological as well as physiological dependencies, their family, and their lack of personal goals as the reasons why and how they became addicted. I work with people of all economic levels and ethnic origins (Afro-American, Hispanic, Asian and others). I have realized over the years that addiction, as well as other psychological issues such as anger, depression and anxiety, come often as a result of feelings of emptiness, abandonment, and a lack of self-understanding or a positive direction in life.

I became a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist using Mindfulness Meditation as part of my psychotherapy practice. My clinical work has included therapy for bi-polar disorder and borderline personality disorder using Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and other treatments for depression and anxiety. 

My education consists of a B.A. from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Michigan, an M.B.A. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Walden University. My dissertation focused on Mindfulness Meditation as an alternative treatment for substance abuse relapse prevention. 

I am a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force after serving 29 years of active and reserve duty as an Intelligence Officer (Special Operations, Search and Rescue), Military Attache to Japan, and Commander of an intelligence unit at McGuire Air Force Base. I am a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), and have been a member of the New York Psychology Association (NYSPA), the National Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapists (NACBT), and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH).