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My Background I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. I began my college career at a small school in Southeastern Ohio, Muskingum College. After 1.5 years in Ohio I transferred to The American University in Washington, D.C. I earned my B.A. in Psychology from The American University and my M.A., and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. I returned to Rockville, Maryland from East Lansing, Michigan in 1999 to complete my Pre-Doctoral Internship at Springfield Hospital Center. My Professional Training After completing my undergraduate degree at The American University, I worked for a year researching the effects of drugs on brains and behavior. Next, I entered Michigan State University to begin my graduate training in psychology. While at Michigan State, I was regularly engaged in clinical work. Whether on summer break from classes or during the school year, seeing patients, learning about clinical theories, and doing therapy remained my top priorities. Moreover, while in Michigan, there were two clinical experiences which left significant and lasting impressions on me. The first was spending three years working as a group therapist for an HIV+, men’s support group. In this position I had a three year lesson, in vivo, about the importance of compassion and caring in therapy; what I learned during that time has remained with me and I continue to work hard to bring compassion and caring into my current practice. The second experience was working at an emergency community mental health facility. At this job I was responsible for assessing patients’ risk for suicide and/or homicide, as well determining their capacity to understand and act in accordance with their surroundings. When they were at risk for engaging in dangerous behaviors, they were hospitalized until they could establish a safe environment for themselves. This experience taught me about the full range of psychiatric disorders; at times people needed a listening ear and support; other times their level of distress prevented them from using sound judgment. In either event, I learned to ally with them and to provide the help they needed. Once again, these are practices that I try to employ in my current clinical work. |
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