Torey Haden's books about traumatized children captured my heart when I was 10 and awakened my curiosity about how we heal from the unimaginable.  After graduating from Amherst College with a degree in psychology I headed to Atlanta to co-author a book about emergency contraception and then took a job teaching sex ed to 8th graders in the Atlanta Public Schools.  Never will I enjoy a more attentive audience! What I learned about my privilege and responsibility marked me in many important ways. These classroom experiences landed me in a position at a locked residential treatment center for teens and only deepened my interests in human sexuality, trauma and recovery.  I moved back north for my Masters of Social Work degree from Smith College School for Social Work and completed one internship at a LGBTQ+ health clinic in Washington, DC and another in a treatment program for families impacted by sexual violence in Albany, NY.  After graduation I worked for a rural community mental health clinic, The Community Hospice of Saratoga and I really enjoyed running groups at the Skidmore College Counseling Center.  I have been exclusively in private practice since 2005.   

After completing the mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher training at the University of Massachusetts School for Medicine/OASIS, Dr. Selma Nemer and I co-founded the Saratoga Stress Reduction Program in 2005.  We were later joined by Buddhist Chaplain Pierre Zimmerman and, during my decade-long tenure, graduated over 2,000 students from our 8-week program.  I remain awed by how mindfulness meditation tenderizes me and offers all of us incredible avenues for self-discovery and peace.  

My high school yearbook predicted I would be a sex therapist. I was running my mouth about sex way back then!! In 2017 I finally made it happen.  I received my certification through the American Society of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists and began to more formally (and with great interest and delight) address my clients’ sexual concerns. Then, after a transformative experience as a client in couples therapy, I sought training as a PACT couples therapist. This training deepened my understanding of human development, relationships, love and loss and I have found my individual work as well as my work with couples to be so much richer. In 2023 I joyfully attended Barbara’s Carrella’s Urban Tantra Training for Professionals where I crossed a threshold into a wider field of clinical possibility around breath, gender, kink and love.

A few more identifiers: I am a white, cisgender, queer, middle-aged (!) able-bodied woman with a tendency towards what’s soulful, complex and, to my mother’s dismay, crass. My wife and I have been together a very long time and we are raising two amazing sons. I love being out on the water and on top of mountains, and I love being a therapist.

And what about you? Who are you and why are you wanting to work together?