Am I meeting with you as a rabbi or as a therapist?

That depends on what you are seeking. Rabbis are spiritual teachers, and I have been immersed in the fields of mindfulness, study of human nature and relationships, social activistm, education, counseling, and conflict resolution for decades, as a rabbi and before earning that title. My doctoratal studies in Clinical Psychology enriched my clinical perspective, so I bring that to my integrative somatic approach to healing personal and inherited trauma with people dealing with a broader range of challenges.

Some of my clients have suffered religious trauma, and in our connection, they seek to reclaim a sense of connectedness to spirituality that feels healing. Other clients simply appreciate cultural language and ritual to support them through their unfolding experience, navigating their journey of healing or parenting or personal development or shifts in identity and relationship. Some clients seek me out to speak solely in the language of science. If you feel that cognitive-verbal psychotherapy leaves out embodied experience, we can focus more somatically. If spirituality is an essential feature of your lived experience, then our work together in your healing journey will integrates yours.

The “essence” of spirituality across diverse cultures, a definition used in scientific research, is “a sense of connectedness to something beyond our selves” which holds us in meaningful ways or provides meaning; that, in some ways, is what therapy is about, too.

What is your focus?

Well, it’s really our focus. There can be many kinds goals for the counseling relationship.  Some are long-term goals such as improving the quality of your life, learning to live with mindfulness, or discerning your purpose with a goal of self-actualization; others may be more immediate or time-bound, such as decreasing symptoms of anxiety or depression,  changing behavior, developing healthy relationships, or recovering your aliveness.  

My focus is on attuning to your needs to support regulation, integration, and development of capacity. My guiding intention is to empower in ways that you can bring into your life.

Your goals define the course of our work together.  While I may make suggestions on how to reach those goals based on my expertise, we will honor your intuition about where you want to go and how we go about that with the rich resources we have on hand.

How does it work?

Mindful awareness helps us track how we are feeling in the moment, and words help articulate what is happening most of the time but we actually have layers of experience beneath what words can express. Somatic approaches will note gestures, bring in contact or support movement that facilitate flow and integration of emotional experience and ease us through physiological, cognitive, and emotional blocks. Many people feel that cognitive-verbal psychotherapy alone leaves out embodied experience, which we do somatically. Others feel that spirituality is an essential feature of their experience, and our work together integrates yours. My expertise in traditional psychotherapy, contemporary somatic treatment modalities, and spirituality, enables us to tailor a unique approach that works for you. Our goal is to support you through the particular challenges you seek to resolve, in ways that feel ideal for you, integrating resources that enhance the meaning and value of this journey for you.