I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. I hold licenses to practice in Pennsylvania (MF001476), New Jersey (37F100206900), Illinois (166001549) and Indiana (35002385A) and am registered as an out-of-state telehealth provider in the state of Florida (TPMF1058).

I received my formation as a psychotherapist during my years as an academic. Having earned a PhD in theology and ethics from Duke University, I taught theology and, later, psychology on the undergraduate level for twenty years. Among my course offerings were classes on health psychology and addiction and recovery, as well as a senior-level class on marriage that eventually served over a thousand students. I found working with my students around all of these issues so compelling that I returned to school for a degree in marriage and family therapy, eventually moving from classroom teaching into full-time work as a therapist.

During a year as a Doctoral Fellow in Families, Illness, and Collaborative Healthcare at the Chicago Center for Family Health, I received training in working with individuals, couples and families around issues of acute and chronic illness. I have worked in primary care medical settings where I have collaborated with medical professionals and assisted in teaching resident physicians to collaborate with mental health professionals. These clinical experiences, along with my background in bioethics and my own history with illness, disability, caregiving and bereavement, energize and support my work as a therapist with persons affected by these universal human realities.

Education

Fellowship, Chicago Center for Family Health
Fellowship, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
PhD, Duke University
MA, La Salle University
MDiv, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
BA, Mount Holyoke College

Professional Affiliations

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Family Therapy Academy
Coalition to Transform Advanced Care
Collaborative Family Healthcare Association
Philadelphia Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia
Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

Selected Presentations and Publications

“The Bell Curve.” Published online at Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine (pulsevoices.org), July 2023.

“Introduction to Family Systems and Genograms.” Course for third-year students in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program at Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, April 2023.

“The Innate Healing Power of the Body: The Premodern Medicine of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Presentation for Conference on Medicine and Religion, March 2021.

“Chronic Illness and the Family.” Presentation for Advocate Family Medicine Residency, Chicago, IL, July 2020.

“Genograms and Why to Love Them.” Presentation for Advocate Family Medicine Residency, Chicago, IL, Dec. 2019.

“Advanced Illness Care and Persons with Disabilities.” Presentation for Summer Institute on Disability and Theology, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI, May 2019.

“Who’s to Say What Counts and What Works? Exploring the Moral Narrative around the Legitimacy of Pain and Pain Relief.” Presentation for Conference on Medicine and Religion, Duke University, Durham, NC, March 2019.

“Courage, Power, and Love.” Charge to nursing graduates at Eastern University in December 2017. Published in Eastern University Nursing Connections, Fall 2018.

“Were We There to Talk about AIDS, or Not?” Published online at Public Seminar (www.publicseminar.org), April 2018.

“Being Smart Around Substances: Addiction, Harm Reduction, and Living Life to the Fullest.” Public Lecture at Windows on the World [lecture series sponsored by the Office of the Provost], Eastern University, April 2018.

Review of “The Lady in the Van” (2015). Published online at Public Seminar (www.publicseminar.org), December 2016.

“A Good Death.” The Covenant Companion 104(5), 36-40, September 2015.

Review of “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (2015). Published online at Meaningful You: Voices of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Psychology Today), August 2015.

Review of “We Have a Pope” (2011). Published online at Meaningful You: Voices of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Psychology Today), May 2012.

“Salvation and Health: Why the Church Needs Psychotherapy.” Christian Bioethics 17(3), 277-298, Winter 2011.