Experience and Training

Prior to opening my psychotherapy practice here in New York in May 1995, I was the owner of a successful residential and commercial contracting company in New Jersey.  During the late 1980’s I began volunteering with Hope House, a Catholic Charities AIDS Services program.  With this organization I became a client advocate, community educator, and volunteer trainer, providing support to the clients, their families, and the other volunteers of the agency. 

Volunteering and later working at Hope House gave me the opportunity to help clients work through the many obstacles HIV/AIDS brought to their lives.  Helping people develop and go about their lives with grace and a renewed sense of dignity was a transformational experience for me. I was inspired to do more with my own life and was compelled to give back to my community, so I put myself through college and graduate school  to become a social worker and psychotherapist.   Later, I earned a PhD in Social Work at New York University.

In 1998 I became the Team Leader with Brooklyn Vet Center in New York, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Vet Center is a counseling facility for veterans and their families with a primary clinical focus on post-traumatic stress disorder.  We work to effectively help combat veterans, victims of sexual assault, and their families heal and work through the myriad symptoms and issues associated with traumatic experiences.

As a former business owner and readjustment expert working with military veterans I became interested in how tactical leadership came about through psychological healing.  This experience led me to develop a skills-based program in my private practice, drawing upon Battle Mind training and other military leadership strategies  that can be put to work for former mili9tary well as civilian leaders in business.

AFFILIATIONS AND AWARDS

• New York City Council Citizen of the Year award for work with Veterans, 2012
• Brooklyn Citation for achievements working with Veterans, 2012
  Diplomat with the American Board of Social Work Examiners, 2001

• Level I and II certified Executive Coach and Mentor, 2001

• Private Practice since 1998
• Team Leader: Veterans Affairs, Brooklyn Vet Center, 1998
• Instructor with the Alcohol Council of New York
• NYS – Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor, 1998
• Supervisor to graduate students doing clinical work and substance abuse counseling at Columbia, Fordham, NYU, and Long Island Universities
• Peer consultant to mental health professionals dealing with complex cases
• Adjunct Professor and Clinical Field Instructor, New York University, 1998-2008

Lectures and Presentations

Symposium presentation on the impact of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” on post military re-adjustment of the Gay and Lesbian Veteran, Columbia School of Public Health (see Gay Military News).