Psychotherapist Specializing in Trauma Therapy.

I have received many requests for more information regarding my work experience. Often there is curiosity regarding details of my work as a psychiatric physician assistant, as well as my journey as a psychotherapist. This section is an attempt to answer some of those questions. Have limited time or no interest in this part? Simply close it out! No need to slog through it in order to work with me.

I have always been drawn to the interconnection and relationship between body and mind. My undergraduate studies included a double major in Physician Assistant Sciences and Psychology. After graduation, I initially spent several years working as a hospitalist in a large medical center, but I quickly recognized that I missed the longitudinal follow-up and care of my patients. How were they after they were discharged? Were they able to find the support they needed to manage their new medical diagnoses? How were they adjusting to these new challenges? During these years, I also became a Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner and worked an on-call position, which allowed me to conduct medical exams, preserve and document forensic evidence, and testify in court as an expert on cases related to sexual assault and sexual abuse. 

My interest in the care of trauma survivors deepened, and I decided to transition to a full-time position as an Assistant Professor in a master’s level physician assistant program. For the next five years, I continued clinical work in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine while teaching courses in Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Medicine, focusing on the interplay between mental health and physical well-being. Although I enjoyed the work, my heart was not satisfied, as I was still feeling drawn to work with trauma survivors on a longer-term basis than simply forensic evaluations. I wanted more information — more training — in order to be of greater assistance. As such, I enrolled full-time in graduate school for psychotherapy. It was there that I felt that I had found my calling.

Over the last 20+ years, my career has focused on the care and protection of traumatized, vulnerable, and at-risk individuals and groups. Most of my work has occurred in major metropolitan areas (Baltimore, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Providence) as a provider on inpatient psychiatric units and in level 1 trauma centers. In one position, which I held for four years, I was responsible for emergently educating families regarding traumatic brain injury and brain death declarations (neurological exams, apnea exams, cerebral flow studies) in the face of catastrophic injury to a loved one (gunshot wounds, motor vehicle accidents, suicide attempts, etc.). This required rapid and simultaneous assessment of multiple individuals for acute risk of suicidality, self-injurious behavior, and drug/alcohol intoxication, as well as risk stratification for violence/threat potential resulting from trauma and grief. I was on service for 24-hour shifts and often spent that entire period with one family/friend group who was navigating the immediate aftermath of their loved one’s injury.

In 2014, I was selected for advanced training in a 12-month inpatient psychiatric fellowship (at that time, one of only two such fellowships in the United States for advanced practice providers). I spent the next five years as one of two providers on a high acuity psychotic disorders and mood disorders unit. I also regularly served as the overnight house officer for the 96-bed psychiatric facility, during which time I was the sole provider responsible for all psychiatric and medical needs for all admitted patients. Such responsibilities provided me with the opportunity to companion traumatized individuals during crisis points in their lives and honed my clinical and psychotherapeutic skills in a manner that has been invaluable.

In all of these roles over the last 20 years, I have been privileged to work with a diverse international population and the traumas which they had endured in their lifetimes:

• Survivors of the Station nightclub fire.

• Sexualized torture. 

• Intimate partner violence.

• Survivors of medical trauma.

• Substance use and traumatic stress.

• Suicide attempt survivors.

• Sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

• Cult-based ritualistic abuse.

• Moral injury.

• Refugee trauma.

• Gender based violence against women.

• Gender based violence against men.

• Sexual slavery.

• Incarceration and traumatic stress.

• Female genital mutilation.

• Ethnic and political sexual violence (usually related to war crimes).

• Occupational trauma and mental health challenges (including compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, burnout, distress reactions, and health risk behaviors).

I have also experienced and witnessed the impact of what many think of as “lesser” traumas — the violations, tragedies, and little deaths that occur on a daily basis. These more common traumas are not less significant or disruptive to the individual’s life, as the autonomic dysregulation that occurs within the human system is identical. Trauma and the nervous system response are the result of something that happens to us -- it does not mean that we were weak or somehow defective. This common misperception often leads to shame, guilt, and further traumatization due to the internal messages we give ourselves after the initial trauma. Suffering is universal in the human experience, and my hope is that I can be of benefit by companioning or guiding others out of that space of pain and into an experience of greater awareness, self acceptance, and self compassion.

• Bachelor of Science — Physician Assistant Sciences

• Bachelor of Science — Psychology

• Master of Arts — Clinical Mental Health Counseling (2005)

• CAGS (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study) — Clinical Mental Health Counseling (2009)

• Fellowship Trained in Psychiatry (12-month inpatient specialization) (2014 - 2015)

• Nationally Certified Physician Assistant

• CAQ (Certificate of Added Qualifications) in Psychiatry (the highest level of speciality recognition available through the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, the national accrediting body for my profession). (2018)

• Licensed Mental Health Counselor — Rhode Island

• Licensed Professional Counselor — Pennsylvania

• Licensed Medical Physician Assistant — Pennsylvania.

• Licensed Osteopathic Physician Assistant — Pennsylvania.

• Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy (2 year training completed 2004 - 2006)

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy 

• Janina Fisher’s Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment I and II

• Certified Clinical Trauma Professional I and II

• EMDR

• Attachment focused EMDR

• Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• Trauma Resource Institute’s Trauma Resiliency Model

• Internal Family Systems

• Trauma Sensitive Heartmath Certification

• Certified in Safe and Sound Protocol (an evidence-based tool based on Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory). Designed to address nervous system dysregulation and reset it to safety. It has been shown to be beneficial for anxiety, trauma, sensory processing differences, and post COVID conditions (among many other conditions).

• Certified Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher (RYT200)

• HealthRhythms drum circle facilitator

• Right Use of Power facilitator (completed core training as well as advanced 8 month program). Training focuses on the ethical use of power and highlights the importance of accountability and social justice in the presence of power differentials. 

• Current student of Movement Medicine, a body based movement meditation practice that provides increased somatic awareness and gives direct embodied experience of what is occurring within us. Utilizes the body as resource and allows us to access and explore somatic patterns and tensions that are held within the physical structure, while allowing for freedom of expression through the body.

• Current student of Cognitive Processing Therapy, a 12-session protocol for PTSD.

• American Counseling Association.

• International Association for Resilience and Trauma Counseling.

• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

• National Alliance on Mental Illness.

• American Academy of Physician Assistants.

• Participating clinician, The Kinsey Institute Traumatic Stress Research Consortium (affiliated with Indiana University). The Kinsey Institute’s mission is to explore and understand — through the lens of Polyvagal Theory — the impact of traumatic stress on intimacy, sexual functioning, and social behavior.

• Mental Health Service Professional on the Mental Health Disaster Team for the American Red Cross.