Experience

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  Northeast Psychotherapy Associates

  • Clinical Social Worker

    • 1988 - Present

    Being in a rural environment it's difficult for my practice to be anything but a general one, working with both women, men, an occasional couple and rarely a family. As with many therapists the bulk of my caseload is women. As I said in the summary, it is an honor to have my clients trust me, sometimes with painful secrets that they have kept most of their lives. I don't have any particular way of working. In college my husband and I dabbled with Gestalt therapy. I still use that old two chair routine. I listen a lot. CBT is used often. There is the psychodynamic psychotherapy, but nothing I particularly think about after all this time. Though I'm not a religious person, spirituality enters into the picture when appropriate. I think the whole world needs a heavy dose of spirituality right now. For me every client is different and how we work together varies from client to client according to their needs. Recently I ended therapy with a woman who wanted "permission" to start dating after being divorced for 15 years! I suppose there could have been heavier sessions but all she really wanted was to talk about the men she was meeting on EHarmony because that's what she needed. 25 years is a long time to do any job and most of the time to love it...if only paperwork and insurance companies didn't exist!

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  YMCA

  • Waterbury, CT

  • Youth Service Director

    • 1983 - 1985
    • Waterbury, CT

    My first job after I got my MSW. Organized and ran programs for youth 8-18. Ran group for troubled youth. Counseled teens. Trained teenagers headed for college to be peer educators. Coordinated with other agencies that dealt with youth in Waterbury. Ran summer camp. Had supervision during this time which, along with work at United Services in Danielson, CT(we moved) eventually led me to my LCSW. I would have stayed at the job at the YMCA because I loved it but I became a Mom and chose to stay home.

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  what didn't I do, inc.

  • Washington, CT

  • Self`employed

    • 1978 - 1981
    • Washington, CT

    Volunteered for Planned Parenthood, milked cows, ran my own cleaning business, painted peoples houses, paid to do darkroom work for a photojournalist friend, worked for a sign carver, one of the first families in a successful food co-op, belonged to a huge community garden group, no nuke meetings and i can't remember the rest. Went back for my MSW in 1981.

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  Avery Heights Nursing Home

  • Hartford, CT

  • Assistant Program Director/Adult Day Care Center

    • 1977 - 1978
    • Hartford, CT

    Mostly I remember the stories of the older people who seemed ancient then and what I learned from them. There were vets, MS and heart patients and many lonely people. My favorite part of the job was to drive all these cuties home at the end of the day in a great big mini van. That's when the best stories came out. All of 22, they offered me the directorship when the director retired. I turned it down I think because I wasn't ready to deal with sickness and death. Instead I got married, along with most of my friends, and went to work for a craft gallery at the Hartford Civic Center! To think I'm not that far away in age than the youngest of them was then.

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  University of Connecticut Women's Center

  • Storrs, CT

  • Co-ordinator Rape Crisis Center

    • 1975 - 1975
    • Storrs, CT

    I organized the first rape crisis center on campus and was responsible for running a group of volunteers as well as counsel victims of rape. The job was hard and I remain grateful for the experience. Also coordinated with the campus and Willimantic police. Did trainings with campus security and local police at a time when there were few if any female officers and the women's movement was still young. It felt good to raise a few men's consciousness. We were all so young. The women who came to us then could be the women who come to me now . I cried with these young women then as I cry with the women who come to me now, perhaps telling their story for the first time. As a clinical social worker for over 25 years there are so many more tools in my toolbox. I'd like to think that all those years ago all of us young rape crisis counselors who flew by the seat of our pants and hearts helped those in pain to move ahead. A few years after I had left school the center moved to Willimantic where it has remained. Of my accomplishments this experience is one I am very proud. I'm thankful for Cathy Havens, director of the center, for steering me through this experience towards the work that I love now.

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  University of Connecticut 1971-1976/Student

  • Storrs, CT

  • Women's Center/First Co-ordinator/Day Care Center

    • 1974 - 1974
    • Storrs, CT

    One of my first organizing efforts was to get a much needed day care center started on campus through my work at the women's center. At that point in time there really were none to speak of. The experience was great fun. I'm glad for all the parents who were able take advantage of it to attend school.