Specialties: Mindfulness

My personal and professional interest in mindfulness largely grew out of my work with PTSD both in terms of treating traumatic stress and the effects this work had on my own psyche and well being, and my struggles with burnout and compassion fatigue.

Mindfulness is about cultivating greater attention and awareness of the present moment, keeping one's consciousness alive to the present moment, through non-judgmental awareness and increasing intimacy with one's thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. And, that it is through the cultivation of greater awareness and intimacy with the self, one can generate a deeper sense of calm, discernment, clarity, freedom, creativity, and an enlivened engagement with the world of every day life.

Mindfulness-based approaches are rooted in Buddhist psychology that presents a way of understanding the inevitability of suffering, what causes suffering, hope that there can be healing from suffering, and a way/path leading to the cessation of suffering. According to Thich Nhat Hanh, "Mindfulness is the energy that allows us to look deeply at our body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness and see clearly what our real needs are, so we will not drown in the sea of suffering."

Central to the cultivation of mindfulness is making the breath the object of one's attention, to follow the breath with awareness, to make this breath in and this breath out the foundation of mindfulness practice. Breath awareness in meditation practices and daily life can calm and refresh the mind and body.

Mindfulness is also about cultivating greater awareness and intimacy with distressing and negative emotional states, it is about moving toward our anguish rather than avoiding, suppressing, detaching and distracting, and that this making contact creates the conditions for growth, understanding, healing and transformation.

One way this practice is embodied is though the concept of self-compassion and lovingkindness which is about cultivating greater compassion and love toward ourselves and others, and that this practice grows through being more in touch with suffering, our own and others. According to the poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, in her poem, Kindness, "Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing."

My approach to psychotherapy is infused with mindfulness-based perspectives and forms of intervention. Based on the patient's interest and presenting concerns, I can draw on these perspectives more explicitly.

In addition to clinical work, I have a growing interest in how mindfulness can enhance the culture of business organizations, including creativity and innovation, design thinking, the quality and experience of customer service, staff relations, management and leadership, and employee job satisfaction and happiness.

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