Background

Born in northwestern Ohio (the oldest of four children), I grew up in a small farm town. I was named after my great-grandfather Michael, who reportedly had the first Ford dealership in the State of Ohio (he ran it out of his hardware store).

Eventually, I escaped the farm and made it to the big city of Cincinnati, where I earned a B.A. in Personnel and Group Development.

After graduation, I moved to London where I worked at a punk clothing store in Covent Garden. During much of my twenties and thirties, I lived in France, England, Wales, Egypt, Denmark, Greece and (the former) Yugoslavia.

After returning to the USA, I earned a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology while interning for “Sesame Street” in New York City.

In San Francisco, I was the Clinical Director for the Homeless Children’s Network and a counselor for Aptos and Potrero Hill Middle Schools while earning my second Master’s Degree.

In San Diego, I’ve worked as a licensed psychotherapist for Kaiser Permanente, Psychiatric Centers at San Diego and San Diego Hospice.

I opened my private practice in 2002.

Professional Affiliations

Licensed Clinical Social Worker, State of California (LCSW License #20738)

Certified Bioenergetic Therapist (Somatic Relational Psychotherapy)

Internal Family Systems certification program, completed Level One training

Southern California Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis

International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis

Education

B.A. in Personnel and Group Development (Honors department, graduated Magna cum Laude), University of CIncinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

M.A. in Developmental Psychology, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. Interned with “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company”

M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work (State of California, Title IV-E award winner), San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California

Completed a four-year certification program in Relational Somatic Psychotherapy with the Southern California Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.
– Oscar Wilde –

Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do.
– Oprah Winfrey –

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.
– Rumi –

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.
– Richard Rohr –

If you are honest, truthful, and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear, suspicion or jealousy.
– Dalai Lama –

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you will be criticized anyway.
– Eleanor Roosevelt –

Look carefully around you and recognize the luminosity of souls. Sit beside those who draw you to that.
– Rumi –

Do not treat your heart like an action figure wrapped in plastic and never used.
– Amy Poehler –

Never be bullied into silence. Accept no external definition of your life; define yourself.
– Harvey Fierstein –