I graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 1993 with my Masters in Social Work and received my Licensed Clinical Social Worker license in 1996.
In my graduate program, through coursework and internships, I received training in social work advocacy, systems theory, and individual and group counseling. After graduation, I continued to build on this foundation by working in several different arenas of social work – with the chronically mentally ill, with hospice, and most recently in medical social work and private practice. I also received certification through the White Lotus Institute as a yoga instructor, teaching classes and incorporating body-centered focus in my work with clients when appropriate.
Since 2009, I have been studying with Dr. Paul Aikin, PhD, a renowned psychologist who has for the last 40 years immersed himself in exploring the nature of human suffering and dedicated himself to learning what is necessary for lasting healing. He has received training in a wide field of study, most notably Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Somatic Psychotherapy, Group Psychotherapy, Relational Psychotherapy, and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), based on the model developed by Sue Johnson, PhD. EFT emphasizes adult attachment, with its focus on building safety and security in partnership and marriage to create secure, healing, relationship bonds. He is certified as an EFT trainer, supervisor, and therapist and he and his wife, Nancy Aikin, PhD, are the directors of the Greater Sacramento-Davis Center for EFT here in the Sacramento valley.
In studying with Dr. Aikin, I have been deeply touched and changed. I have learned and continue to learn what it is to be with clients, whether individuals or couples, in a deeply human and authentic way; how to skillfully guide clients through the challenges of claiming their emotional experience and sharing it with themselves and another; and how to help clients access acceptance and compassion for their pain and their experience of being human.