Raised in the greater NY metropolitan area, I left for the Midwest for several years before moving to Portland, Maine which has become my home for the last 30+ years. This is where I put down my roots with my husband and raised 2 children who are now adults.
Prior to graduate school, I attended Grinnell College in Iowa where I majored in religious studies among other liberal arts subjects and took many walks down the train tracks among the cornfields often in the glorious Iowa sunsets. I worked at a shelter for domestic violence, ran a program in Minneapolis at the County Hospital for domestic violence, worked with developmentally disabled adults doing recycling, was a home health aide and worked at a deli counter before realizing my path towards social work. My professional training began in 1980 at Washington University in St. Louis where I received my MSW in clinical social work with a concentration in Family Systems Therapy.
A lifelong learner, I feel blessed to have a job I love which affords continual personal and professional development within a context of healing and relationship. I’m currently in training to become a conscious dance teacher. Embodiment through movement is a deep way to feel presence, express and integrate life traumas and experiences; listening to the wisdom in the body.
In addition to my work, I enjoy community, music, art, nature, mindfulness, cooking, adventure, nonviolent communication, and travel.