Clinical Social Worker
Coral Gables Florida 33134
My passion and enthusiasm for helping others began in my youth when people often commented that I was a compassionate, empathetic and patient person.
Early in my career I worked with teens who suffered from neglect and abandonment. They felt sad, lonely and disconnected from their families. Out of despair, they coped with those emotions by acting out and getting into legal trouble. They needed a strong advocate and I represented them in the juvenile court system.
I'd known my own despair. From losing my mother to cancer at an early age and having an absentee father, I too had felt lonely and abandoned. It was difficult and challenging to face all the obstacles in my life alone, yet I found strength, clarity and purpose by helping others.
My choice to become a clinical therapist grew out of these experiences.
I was determined to help individuals, couples and families break destructive patterns of behavior and learn productive patterns of relating. The way we communicate and relate to others is influenced strongly by our past interactions with our families. If the old and unproductive patterns of communication are not disrupted and replaced with new and productive behaviors we may repeat problems from our childhood. We can choose to be different and learn healthy behaviors.
Since earning degrees in clinical social work and psychotherapy, I have specialized in individual, couples and family counseling. Helping others achieve emotional health for themselves and in their relationships has given me an enormous amount of gratification.
Now, after more than 15 years as a qualified and skilled psychotherapist, nothing is more satisfying to me than helping individuals out of depression, assisting couples to relate better to one another, or guiding a family in recovering from feeling sad and hopeless from dealing with dysfunctional behavior patterns.
