Knowing why hasn't changed much.

Psychodynamic doesn't mean silence and a couch. It means we treat what happens between us as information. How you present yourself, what you leave out, what you manage: all of it shows up in the room, and it's usually the same thing running your life outside it.

Relational means I'm in it too. I'll tell you what I notice, including when it's uncomfortable to hear.

Identity is part of that. Sexuality, gender, race, and class shape what's easy to say and what isn't, so I'd rather they sit in the conversation than politely around it. I work with queer and trans clients.

Direct means I say things plainly and early. I'd rather be wrong out loud and corrected by you than sit on something for six months.

I studied psychology, neuroscience, and behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, then completed my doctorate at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, an APA-accredited Psy.D. program founded in 1968 by UC Berkeley and Stanford professor Nevitt Sanford.

I trained in the Institute's psychodynamic clinic, which has been teaching depth work in Berkeley for decades, and I was later invited back there as a mentor. I trained after that at RAMS in San Francisco, a community agency running since 1974, where the caseload was severe and the supervision was psychoanalytic and demanding.

For my residency year I matched to the APA-accredited internship at the Department of State Hospitals in Napa, the oldest state hospital still operating in California. I specialized in psychodynamically informed inpatient work and trained extensively in forensic psychology. The hospital hired me as a staff psychologist afterward, with clinical and forensic responsibility for a 60-bed unit of violent offenders living with severe mental illness and personality disorders.

I now keep a psychotherapy caseload of adults who want deep, lasting change, alongside private forensic work and court testimony.