Teaching

I enjoy working with others who have strong passions for psychiatry and psychotherapy. I have been fortunate to have had many good teachers. Beginning in medical school at the University of Wisconsin, when Professor Carl Whitaker revealed his secrets about working with challenging families, I was hooked and wanted to be a psychiatrist. He encouraged me to join with him and families to search out unique solutions to their problems. In my last year of medical school, I was also fortunate to travel to Kings College in London and attend lectures given by Anna Freud at the Royal Free Hospital, as well as participate in group therapies conducted by Malcolm Pines and small seminars by Heinz Wolff—all eye-opening experiences for me. Their enthusiasm, energy, and abilities to help inspired me to develop my own.

My education in adult and child psychiatry as well as psychoanalysis has opened other doors, allowing me to teach at institutions like the University of California in San Francisco. More important, it has brought me into close contact with others who love the work as much as I do.

Grounded by my child-adolescent education, I employ a developmental approach that integrates psychodynamic/relational, biological, and behavioral factors with an emphasis on the dialectal, combined with spiritual, cultural, and familial elements. These are big words that don’t begin to describe how important it is for me to work with those seeking help in an open manner. I continue to learn from those that I teach, as well as the individuals I have the opportunity to work with.

For seven years I worked as one of the directors of an adolescent in-patient program at UCSF and then had 19 years of experience as Director of Consultation Liaison for children, adolescents, and young adults there. These experiences aid both my clinical and forensic work.