Image courtesy of ARAS
I am an Associate Clinical Professor in the Child and Adolescent Training Program, School of Psychiatry, at the University of California at San Francisco as well as a Jungian analyst certified to work with children and adolescents. In my practice I see preteens, teens, and young adults. Psychotherapy with young people in this broad age group can be both effective and exciting where changes of significant proportion can happen relatively quickly due to the fluid psychological state at this time in life.
- make positive choices that are rooted in their own unique spirit and sense of self
- become more thoughtful about how they experience and cope with stresses
- make connections between feelings, thoughts and behaviors so they deepen their understanding of how these are interrelated
- develop tools to find their own creative solutions to the challenges they encounter as they are growing up.
To set up an appointment please contact me by phone at (510) 207 1082 or send an email to me via the contacts page.
The most important part of working therapeutically with a teenager is forming a secure trusting working relationship with him or her. The ability to form such a relationship is based on maintaining respect and confidence in the young person’s growing abilities and choices. Individuals at this stage of life have one foot in childhood and another in adulthood. This can be a confusing situation – for them and for the others in their lives. They are working hard to develop a sense of their unique identity separate from parents and the adult world, while also trying to stay connected and find their place in the world outside of home. It can be a time of despair and suffering, as well as optimism and excitement. There can be a great deal of anger, particularly directed at others in the family who are closest, and this can alternate with the loving intimacy of a growing individual with an increasingly mature mind and heart. Risky behaviors often complicate the adolescent experience as kids are discovering a new sense of freedom and may want to explore aspects of the adult world through exploring sex, alcohol, or drugs. For all these reasons adolescence can be an especially trying time both for teens and those who love them.
I began my career as a paraprofessional counselor in the 1970’s working with runaway adolescents at a crisis shelter near the beach in Southern California. Over all these years I have no less passion for working with adolescents and young adults. This work has taught me many things, including that adolescence is not just a time in life but a state of mind full of energy and strong emotion that we can experience at any age. It brings us the life-giving raw possibilities of creativity, openness, and commitment. The transformative potential is enormous.