When one discovers that each of us has a unique Self that is always in the process of unfolding, one can train the eye to closely look at any other person and see the unstoppable determination and force driving the person toward wholeness. What I see when I look for this unfolding of my own Self is that I become more whole in the process of assisting others to find their means of fulfillment. These means for myself as well as for others are found in all of our meaningful endeavors such as marriage/partnership, solitary lives, parenthood, work, school, substances, travel, and even mental and spiritual health detours and struggles. One thing is consistently clear – the determination and force driving toward wholeness is irrepressible, unstoppable. Since my original licensing as a Marriage and Family Therapist in 1984, the search for ways and places to engage with the force of Self in other individuals, communities, cultures and experiential circumstances has led me well beyond schools, shelters, therapist offices and mental centers. The following are highlights of the adventures have been part of my journey that form the therapist that I am today. Clinical practice highlights include:
Child Therapist & Manager: Children’s Treatment Program, a domestic violence shelter
School-Based Therapist: Across all grades; preschool to high school
Teacher & Manager: Affective Needs special education center program
Clinical Staff: Intensive residential treatment center for adolescents
In-Home Child & Family Therapist & Multi-System Case Supervisor
Human Growth and Development practice highlights include:
Peace Corps Volunteer: Supported primary health care program in isolated communities in the Philippines
Social Soundness Analyst & Institutional Development Consultant in post-revolution Philippines
On-board HR & Training Manager: Served cruise line crew from over 40 countries & cultures
Psycho-Social Recovery Consultant in Sri Lanka (Tsunami ’04) and US Gulf Coast (Katrina ’05)
Organizational Change Management Leader with a global humanitarian organization for child and family protection and development
Yes, I’ve been fortunate enough to have been deeply immersed, for significant periods of time, into the raw and real lives of many global expressions of humanity. It might be surprising that what this experience has taught me is that as wonderfully beautiful our differences are, we humans have more in common than not. Again, the common denominator is an innate determination, a force to be whoever we are most intrinsically, individually designed to be, whatever that authentically is. This is experience that I bring to every encounter that I have with the people and organizations that I work with. Together we discover how to move with the challenges, obstacles, damages, and opportunities that interact with our collective processes of individuation, of becoming wholly you.
