I grew up on Long Island, but with deep southern familial roots. My affinity for the South probably began there. I love my New York, but I’m at home down here. Sorry North.
I was an active and fun-loving kid who harbored intense, mostly silent feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. Silent because, from my environment I learned that was the solution. So the wound expressed in lots and lots of other ways.
With time it became clear my only real option was buying into the idea of my innate deficiency hook, line and sinker- even to the point of self-fulfilling prophesy. Thank God life and its manifold curve balls would have it manifest in ways that demanded full attention.
Thus began my (somewhat forced) emergence from darkness, for which I’m ever grateful. The opportunity to make contact with my innermost Self within the context of a healing relationship has been and continues to be invaluable. It’s the bedrock of my understanding of the power and potential of openhearted therapeutic presence.
The rest– B.A. in English from Clark University followed by a few years pursuing my first love, music. Day jobs, demos, dues, a record deal, touring, and many of the usual ups and downs of a professional creative pursuit. While I’ve long since moved on, making music is a passion that continues. If the universe cooperates, it always will.
I entered the field through volunteering in 1997. By 2000 I received my MSW with honors from New York University. As an intern I counseled at-risk children and families with the NYC based non-profit Partnership With Children, and substance-dependent adults at Greenwich House Counseling Center where I became a staff therapist.
Relocating to Nashville after 9/11, I spent two years as a staff therapist at Vanderbilt Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and three more at Vanderbilt Community Mental Health Center. Following an intense year at Family & Children’s Services I began practicing independently in 2007.
It’s nothing short of an honor and privilege to spend my days working with people on the things that matter most.
In my off time I recharge by the light of the brightest lights in my life, my wife and daughters. Otherwise it’s about ongoing learning, time with friends, spiritual exploration, making music and trying to stay appropriately childlike, healthy and active. I’d say some of those come easier than others.
