Bio

I received a Master’s in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in 1984. I spent the first five years of my professional career at Family & Children’s Services of Greater St. Louis. While at F&CS I was exposed to a wide range of clinical problems from a diverse client population. During that time I received extensive training in couples counseling to augment my graduate school specialization in that area.

I was one of the founders of the first mental health agency in the country created in response to the AIDS epidemic. Delta Mental Health Institute was a private not for profit that during its five years in operation served the needs of the HIV/AIDS community, the LGBT community, and male survivors. During that time, I became a founding member of the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, and offered workshops throughout the United States for male survivor therapists. I designed the first course taught in St. Louis to address the mental health needs of those living with HIV, and went on to teach at both Washington University and St. Louis University.

In 1994, 1996, and 1997, I received intensive training in working with survivors of sexual abuse. In 1996, I attended a five-day residential Dismantling Racism Institute here in St Louis and went on to co-design a seven-day residential institute in diversity awareness for high school students. For five years, I co-directed one of the summer Institutes. I am a graduate of the two year advanced psychodynamic psychotherapy program at the St Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. I have completed a four-year training program also at the St Louis Psychoanalytic Institute, and am a practicing psychoanalyst.