I'm a husband, a father, and a psychologist. All of those areas where others depend on me are very important to me. In terms of my education, I went to college where I grew up, in New York. I went to Ph.D. school on a full scholarship to Ohio State University. When I was deciding where to settle down, I chose California, which has some family and did not have winter. In my career, I directed a large behavioral health clinic for the poor. I was a small-town doctor with a thriving full-time private practice. Both of those were really great, fulfilling jobs. I ended up selling the practice, for several reasons, primary of which was that my wife needed to move out of that small town for her career. I am happily married and have one son who is now in college. Great kid, although he would highly disagree with the designation "kid." I currently work at a Forensic Hospital some days and evaluate veteran's with PTSD and other psychological issues to help them get VA benefits other days. I have written two books, and I came very, very close on one of them but was unable to get a mainstream publisher to publish them.
In terms of my orientation, I am a strong believer in integrative therapy. Each therapy has something to offer, and may be the best choice for some clients. I think a good therapist or doctor intelligently responds to individual client needs and wants rather than treating everyone the same or following some sort of manual.
I have loved doing marriage and family therapy, quick skill-building with some clients, and in-depth trauma processing with others. I find that my most successful cases frequently involve an aspect of both present-focused skill-building at first with past-focused trauma-processing later.
As a helping professional, I feel my job is to assess and then tell the clients the truth about what I see, but then let them decide about what they choose to focus on, assuming that I believe they can get something useful out of it. I won't do therapy that is clearly not going to be effective.
