I began the path toward becoming a therapist when I was 20 years old and attended Naropa University, where Eastern and Western approaches to psychology are taught along with mindfulness training in the Buddhist tradition. I earned my BA in Contemplative Psychology at Naropa in 2003. I moved to San Francisco in 2005 to start graduate school. I came here because the Bay Area has some of the most cutting edge thinking and training in psychology. Many of the inspiring figures in my field, past and present, have resided on the West coast. My Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology is from New College of California, where my dedication to diversity awareness and social change was supported. My education there was an exciting time of rigorous, critical examination of psychodynamic theory and how it applies to the issues relevant to modern culture.

I have been practicing meditation regularly since 2000, including an accumulated 270 days of retreat practice. While I rarely bring meditation explicitly into sessions, its effects enhance my work. Mindfulness practice trains me to sustain a calm, focused attention and a non-judgmental, curious stance on whatever arises in session. One benefit of therapy is that this stance is passively learned, helping you build self-acceptance and self-understanding. As I listen carefully to you, you learn to listen more closely to yourself, which leads to a discovery of inner guidance and value.

My interest in psychology and spirituality developed when I was a teenager. Growing up in late 80’s-90’s suburban Atlanta, I witnessed the result of the obsessive focus on economic growth and development at the expense of both inner balance and the protection of nature’s wild places. People became busier and more stressed as forests gave way to strip malls. Like many teens, I wasn’t inspired by my culture’s ideal of gaining achievement mostly through status and material wealth. I was interested in something more, a sustainable life filled with meaningful work and relationships. My father, who was also interested in psychology and self-growth, gave me a few inspiring books and eventually I discovered the Eastern philosophies of the mind. I also spent as much time outdoors as I could, and to this day I find the wilderness to be a refuge and inspiration, mostly through hiking and backpacking trips. I have also made a huge effort in my life to explore some of the diversity of human culture. I’ve spent long periods of time outside of the US and have traveled to over 20 countries.

It helps to have a therapist who has been through his or her own therapy and self-exploration. I’ve been in some form of a counseling relationship off and on since 2001, including six years of individual therapy with two different MFTs. I was in a Diamond Heart group from 2009-2013, which is a psychologically-minded spiritual inquiry group. I also have personal experience with a few different couples counselors, and I worked with a Rosen practitioner for a year in 2014. I practice meditation within Reggie Ray’s Dharma Ocean community. From all my studies personally and professionally, I have a thorough map of human consciousness, but I understand maps don’t always correspond to reality. More importantly, I get from the inside the often murky and sometimes open and joyful terrain of human experience. As a therapist, I’m your guide through your healing journey, but I’m also walking alongside you in my own way.

I’m continuously developing my professional skills. These are my significant post-grad trainings:

2019 – Certification in The Developmental Model of Couples with The Couples Institute, further improving my skills in couples therapy through study in attachment, neuroscience and differentiation.

2019 –  Master level certification in NARM, an approach that addresses childhood developmental trauma. Developmental trauma is what results from the kind of experience many of us had growing up with less than ideal parenting that contributes to most of our current relationship troubles and disconnection. It also includes the impact from family dynamics around arguing/fighting, alcohol or drug addiction, loss, poverty, and abuse and neglect.

2018 – Completed the Hand-in-Hand Parenting Professionals Intensive. Hand-in-Hand is a practical, emotionally intelligent approach to helping stressed-out parents understand and support their children’s emotional and behavioral issues using connection-based tools such as special time and respectful limit-setting. As a very involved father who has also taken this training, I am qualified to consult on parenting issues. 

2012 –  EFT (Emotionally-Focused Therapy) advanced training course, an evidence-based couples therapy model based on attachment theory.

2011 –  Level 1 AEDP training and participation in over 50 consultation group sessions where AEDP was taught through close examination of videotaped sessions. aedpinstitute.com

2010 – Sandplay in Education program, where I provided play therapy for elementary school children while receiving training and supervision.

2009 – Foundations of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.