I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Addiction Counselor. I have been working with children, adults, couples and families since 1980. I specialize in family therapy, marriage counseling, co-dependents, children and adult children of alcoholics/addicts, and anxiety, depression and anger in adults and children/adolescents.

My experience in counseling has been within social service agencies in Erie.

The first seven years of my career was in residential treatment at Gannondale and Perseus House. The clientele were juvenile offenders from cities across the state of Pennsylvania. Working with adolescents became my passion. There is no greater reward than to see a young person turn their life around. I became interested in addictions, since many of the residents were users themselves or came from families that abused substances. I spent the next five years working with adolescents and adult substance abusers at GECAC in their addictions department. The next thirteen years was spent at Harborcreek Youth Services as a therapist and director of their addictions treatment. My career turned from addictions to Mental Health issues as I became the Director of Behavioral Health Rehabilitative Services at the Achievement Center and therapist at the Family Center. This opportunity allowed me to work directly with clients on issues of parenting, divorce, custody, mental illness and behavioral redirection. I have been in private practice over three years and have been able to utilize my 30+ years of counseling experience to help many individuals and families rediscover themselves.

I have been honored in several ways throughout my career. I have had the opportunity to teach many professionals via the Department of Health and Preferred Systems training programs. I have been a speaker for “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” which is an outreach to parents in our community. I was the 2005 recipient of the “Adult Leadership Award” presented by the Erie County Drug and Alcohol Executive Commission.

I am a Licensed Social Worker by discipline and child, marriage and family therapist in training and specialty. I have been working with children and families since 1990. I specialize in marriage therapy, family therapy, children of divorce, parenting through divorce, and anxiety, depression and anger in children.

I began my work with kids at Perseus House where I worked with girls and boys in a residential setting. In that setting, my work was in the fields of mental health, drug and alcohol and vocational rehabilitation. In 1992, I accepted a position at Family Services of NWPA as an in-home family therapist in the Family Based Mental Health Program.

While at Family Services, I participated in the PA Department of Mental Health family therapy training from 1992-1995 when I graduated from the program. This program was facilitated by staff from the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Upon completion of the training program, I enrolled at Case Western Reserve University. In 1998, I graduated from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and opened my private family therapy practice. In 1999, I left Family Services to work full-time in my practice.

Since then, I've been practicing family therapy, providing clinical training and consultation to community agencies and am often requested speaker on child and family topics both regionally and nationally. In 2004, I co-founded ErieKIDS, a community mental health educational program. In 2007, ErieKIDS received its 501(c)(3) non-profit status. I operate as the president of the organization.

Through ErieKIDS, I've produced three children's musical videos. "Lost in Erie", "Emily Gets Angry" and "In the Middle"; all well-received resources for the local schools and community agencies in the region. The movies have been distributed nationally and are available for purchase on the ErieKIDS website (all sales benefit services provided by ErieKIDS to children, families and schools in Erie County). http://www.eriekids.org

My productions have won two national awards and I was honored with the "YMCA Volunteer of the Year" in 2005 and the Young Erie Professional GenerationE! award, Erie Living Wall of Fame and Edinboro University Phi Alpha Honor Society Honorary Lifetime Member award in 2008. Recently, I was named "NASW 2009 Social Worker of the Year". I am the chair of the YMCA - Downtown Branch Childcare committee as well as a board member. I am a member the Healthy Youth Development Parent Task Force and NASW-PA NW Division.

I am a National Certified Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor.  Since 1998, I have been providing counseling services to children, adolescents, adults, and families in the home, school, and community settings. 

I began my work providing therapeutic and administrative support with High School and College students through at Cornell Abraxas  and Penn State Behrend while attending graduate school at Edinboro University.  Upon graduation, I began providing mobile therapy and behavior modification  in home and school settings through my job at The Achievement Center.  In 2004, I was hired as a Program Supervisor at Stairways Behavioral Health in the child and adolescent program.  In addition to my continued clinical work providing therapy to child, adolescents, and their families, I was fortunate to have the ability to support and mentor new counselors and students through education, public speaking seminars/trainings, and supervision consultation.  Within the past year, I have branched my work to The Family Therapy Practices of Erie where anyone would feel welcomed and comforted in the quaint and supportive atmosphere there.

I take a cognitive behavioral and psychoeducational approach to my work with clients. My greatest areas of interest/specialization have been helping people manage depression, moving beyond traumatic life events, self-esteem building and empowerment, improving relationships and communication within families and couples, and behavior modification.

I am a National Certified Counselor (NCC) and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Pennsylvania. I also hold school guidance certification for grades K-12.  I specialize in working with children, adolescents, and their families and have been doing so since 2000.  

I began working with Family Therapy Practices of Erie in April of 2011.

I started my work in the counseling field in residential treatment in the

Binghamton, NY area. I have also held community mental health positions with various social services agencies in Erie, PA. This includes as a crisis counselor at

Crisis Services with Safe Harbor Behavioral Health and as an intake clinician and supervisor with Case Management Support Services and Erie County Care Management. I have been with the Achievement Center for the past 5 years and serve as their Outpatient Mental Health Director.

My true passion is helping children and their families. I take a cognitive-behavioral and psycho-educational approach with families. This includes providing parent education and support, biblio-therapy (use of books in treatment), behavior modification strategies, play therapy, individual, family and group therapy, art therapy, and pet therapy.