I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio where I first became active in movements for social justice that have shaped the direction of my life’s work. Choosing a career in psychology over one as a vocalist, I received a B.A cum laude in 1972 from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1977.
I have served on the faculties of Southern Illinois University, the University of Washington, and the Washington School of Professional Psychology, and have taught and lectured through the U.S., Canada, Europe, Taiwan and Israel. In the early 1980s I hosted one of the first radio call-in shows by a psychologist. In the Fall of 2000, I was the on-site psychologist for the reality show Survivor: The Australian Outback. In addition to my current full-time practice of psychotherapy, consultation, and forensic psychology I am also the founder and Director of the Fremont Community Therapy Project, a low-fee psychotherapy training clinic in Seattle.
Everything that I do is motivated by the drive to create social justice, whether it’s the way that I practice psychotherapy or the manner in which I teach. This principle of infusing social justice into everything that I do is visible and known to everyone who interacts with me, and is a focus of the training clinic that I founded. I make the construct of “Tikkun Olam”, the Hebrew term for healing the world, central to my work, teaching my trainees that psychotherapy is Tikkun Olam, one hour and one life at a time. Thus, I try to inspire by example, and by continuous asking the question, “what is the one small thing that we can do to empower another person.”
The bulk of my scholarly work has been in the fields of feminist therapy theory, trauma treatment, lesbian and gay issues, assessment and diagnosis, ethics and standards of care in psychotherapy, and cultural competence. I have authored or edited ten professional books including the award-winning Subversive Dialogues: Theory in Feminist Therapy as well as more than 140 other professional publications, and have been featured in five psychotherapy training videos. I am also a student of aikido, where I hold a brown belt.
