Collaborative, Interactive Help

As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist I am trained to assess, diagnose and treat individuals, couples, families and groups to achieve more adequate, satisfying and productive social, marriage, and family adjustment. To maintain my California licensure, I have completed the necessary intensive coursework at an accredited university, passed both the written and oral examinations, accrued more than 3,000 hours of supervised experience, and receive at least 36 hours of approved, mandatory continuing education every two-year licensing renewal period.  In addition, I am a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP), a clinical mental health professional who has met nationally accepted criteria of education, training and experience in group psychotherapy. A certified CGP is considered an expert in group psychotherapy and an ethical practitioner who is committed to group psychotherapy as an autonomous treatment modality.

I have a M.A. Degree in Clinical Psychology from accredited John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California, and a B.A. Degree in Psychology, graduating with honors from San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California. My private practice is in Mill Valley, CA, 10 miles North of San Francisco.  With more than 20 years of experience, I provide professional support to individuals, couples,  families, and groups. I am a clinical member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group, the American Group Psychotherapy Association, the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society, and the International Cultic Studies Association.

In June, 2008, I completed a Post-Graduate Psychotherapy Training Program with
the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (SFPRG), a one-year post-graduate program on the theory and practice of psychotherapy. The program is designed for practicing mental health professionals who wish to deepen their understanding of how people respond to life events and how psychotherapy works. The conceptual framework for the program is a psychodynamic,cognitive,relational theory that has been empirically validated and supported. The theory provides a foundation for the exploration and understanding of a wide range of clinical phenomena, therapeutic interventions, and theoretical issues.

I continue to deepen my knowledge of and competence in clinical treatment for individuals, couples, and groups.  I attend trainings for trauma and its treatment, studying and attending conferences presented by leaders in the field, including Bessel van der Kolk, MD (Mill Valley, 2003; SF, 2008); John Briere, PhD (SF, 2009); presentations by the American Group Psychotherapy Association; study of Judith Herman, MD; and presentations at SF Psychotherapy Research (SF, 2008, 2009). For the past 13 years, I have attended the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society Annual Conference/Training Institute at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. This two and one-half day residential training event features master group therapists, selected for their demonstrated expertise in clinical group psychotherapy, as well as didactic and experiential training.I have also received certifications in mediation/conflict resolution & The Shared Parenting Support Program(c) for Divorced Parents.  

A WORKSHOP FOR FORMER MEMBERS AND ADULT CHILDREN OF CULTS OR HIGH-DEMAND GROUPS was held on Sunday, June 27, 2010, from 1:00–5:00 p.m. in Mill Valley, CA (10 miles north of San Francisco). Janja Lalich, Ph.D. and I co-facilitated and plan to offer more workshops regularly throughout the year. Dr. Lalich presented on her "bounded choice" model and "brainwashing" in the first half of the workshop.  After a 20 minute break with light refreshments at a pleasant spot around a picnic table under an oak tree, the workshop continued with readings by former members and open discussion of current issues relevant to participants' lives.  The workshop goal is to provide a safe, respectful environment in which participants may gain increased understanding and support for their cult and post-cult experience.  Janja Lalich is Professor of Sociology, CSU Chico, and a specialist in extremism, cults & coercive situations. She is author of Take Back Your Life: Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships and Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults.

On June 6th, 2010, I gave a peresentation for the NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY SOCIETY'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE at Asilomar Conference Center on the coast in Pacific Grove, CA.  The title of her presentation was: "From Cults To Group For Former Members:  Opportunities for Healing and Change."  With an attentive, interested audience, I described, among other issues, various categories, common structure and dynamics of cults; observed personality disorders of cult leaders; the harm caused to "true believers;" the process of leaving; and how the group and other life experience helps cult survivors disconfirm deeply-held, inaccurate, self-limiting beliefs,part of the process of recovery that frees them to pursue healthy goals.

I joined three other former members on a panel presentation at the Mosaic Law Synagogue in Sacramento, November 12th, 2009.  We focused on our respective cult experience, including recruitment, indoctrination, cult characteristics, the physical and psychological process of leaving, adjustment to society-at-large and life now. Janja Lalich (Author of Take Back Your Life) and the attending rabbi also compared and contrasted cults and Judaism at the synagogue.  

In April, 2009, I was primary therapist during a two-week intensive program of individual therapy session and workshops for cult survivors at Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Albany, Ohio, a residential rehabilitation center for ex-cult members that has treated over 1,000 clients. The Founder and Director was the late Paul Martin, Ph.D.

I gave a presentation at the International Cultic Studies Association Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June, 2008.  The title was: "Disconfirming Inaccurate, Self-Limiting Beliefs Internalized Through Thought Reform." This included a brief overview of the integrated psychodynamic, relational, cognitive theory from which I draw that has been empirically validated over the past 45 years by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group.  I referred to Robert Jay Lifton's eight psychological themes of how people's basic beliefs are changed through the process of thought reform without their realizing what is happening.  I also gave examples of these internalized beliefs and harmful environments that obstruct critical thinking and self-autonomy.  Then, I gave examples of beneficial experience in therapy and life that can disconfirm these beliefs so people can pursue normal, healthy developmental goals.

At the same conference above, I was part of a panel entitled "Creativity and Cults",   reading an excerpt from her paper, "Touched, Disconfirming Pathogenic Beliefs of Thought Reform Through the Process of Acting" that will be included in an upcoming Cultic Studies Journal.  The following is the paper's abstract:  "Leaving a  high-demand group or cult, once one becomes indoctrinated, involves a largely unconscious process of disconfirming inaccurate, self-limiting, and self-sabotaging beliefs that have been internalized as a result of trauma.  The author identifies typical beliefs resulting from thought reform in her work with former members, some of which she also internalized from her experience in a high-demand group and eventually disconfirmed.  From the perspective of an integrative cognitive, relational, psychodynamic theory, the author compares her two-year intensive paticipation at "The Loft", a renowned acting school, with the forced conformity of the high-demand group.  She elaborates on how she was "touched" by a character from an Ingmar Berman short story (1977) and how this identification and other significant life events provided her with "corrective emotional experiences" (Alexander and French, 1946) .  These reparative experiences gave her the freedom to pursue healthy developmental goals."

Besides my private practice, previous clinical positions include: San Francisco Children's Hospital Child Crisis Services for Children, Adolescents, and Families at High-Risk; Marin Community Mental Health Services, Children & Families Division; Clement Street Counseling Center, San Francisco; Marin Assisted Independent Living Program, San Francisco and San Rafael, treating those diagnosed with severe mental illness; Center Point Drug Treatment Program in San Rafael, CA, serving as Director of the Adolescent Division and Member of the Marin County Juvenile Drug Court, San Rafael.

I also draw from my own life experiences.  At 14, my mother and I were recruited into what I now identify as a "Christian"/"Mystical" cult that I left when I was 16.  At 19, four years after my mother's death, I was recruited into an "Eastern" / "New Age" cult in which I was actively involved for seven years. After I left, I pursued a career in acting and benefitted from studying with the late, esteemed teacher, Peggy Feury, in a two-year intensive program at The Loft Studio in Los Angeles. Then I returned to studies in clinical psychology and counseling. I enjoy home life with my husband, family and friends that includes our Persian cat, the garden, birds, walking, viewing the Redwood-covered ridge, visiting the ocean nearby, reading, and listening to music, especially jazz and classical.

I am deeply grateful to my clients, for their motivation, courage, insights, perseverance, honesty, intelligence, and compassion, from whom I gain more than they may ever know.