My Background
After graduating with a BA in Psychology from the University of Richmond in 1987, I lived in Honduras where I served in the Peace Corps for over two years. During that time I learned Spanish and have worked in the language ever since. Following my return to Washington DC, I worked as a health educator in HIV/AIDS prevention with the Latino community of Mount Pleasant and developed a community health promoter training model. I attended graduate school at the University of Denver from 1992 to 1996 and received my Doctorate in Psychology in 1997, after completing my dissertation and a one year internship at the American Lake VA Medical Center in Washington State.
My residency at the Center for Multicultural Human Services in Falls Church, Virginia allowed me to continue my practice of psychotherapy in both English and Spanish and I received my License as a Clinical Psychologist from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1998. I continued working at the Center for Multicultural Human Services as a staff psychologist, providing psychotherapy, psychological evaluations and clinical supervision to staff and graduate students. As a consultant to the House of Ruth, I provided play therapy to children of the residents of that program as well as clinical supervision for staff. As a consultant to the mental health program of La Clinical del Pueblo, I provided individual psychotherapy to individuals living with HIV and AIDS as well as those battling chemical dependancy.
In 2001, I opened my private practice where I work with individuals and couples in English and Spanish from a relational perspective using frameworks grounded in psychoanalytic theory that incorporate attachment theory as well as Buddhist concepts and teachings. I currently work from an Internal Family Systems perspective having completed several trainings and many hours of supervision. I have completed the level one training of that perspective.
My ongoing dedication to training and supervision have led me to complete a two year post-graduate program in the application of Object Relations Theory with Families and Couples at the Washington School of Psychiatry. I also completed two years of the Modern Perspectives of Psychotherapy Program through the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. I am fully certified through EMDRIA as an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) practitioner and I have attended many conferences and seminars around trauma and psychotherapy. I am a Level I trained IFS therapist. I also continue to seek out supervision and consultation to continue to develop in my own practice.
