I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and received intensive training in family therapy at the Philadelphia Guidance Clinic, as well as having learned from many of the founding thinkers in family and couples therapy.
I am licensed as a psychologist by the California Board of Psychology (#4290) and for many years held an additional license as a Marriage, Family and Child Therapist (#5940). I am in the National Registry of Health Science Providers in Psychology (#30047)
I became a Charter Member of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA), where I served as Vice-President, Treasurer, and as a member of the Board of Directors and was honored with an award for distinguished service to the Academy. I also served on the Board and chaired the clinical committee of the Stepfamily Association of America, am on the Expert Council of the National Stepfamily Resource Network, and have presented on working with family transitions throughout the United States and Latin America. From 2004-2012, I was an Associate Editor to the journal Family Process.
A professor at the Wright Institute, Berkeley, I've served on the faculty since 1981, for most of those years teaching family and couples therapy and supervising students' doctoral research. I was formerly on the Clinical Faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and have taught at UCB Extension, the University of San Francisco, California School of Professional Psychology (now Alliant), the University of California at Santa Cruz, California State East Bay, and in a post-graduate training program of the Association of Family Therapists of Northern California.
I was trained as a mediator by Joan Kelly and Nancy Foster at the Northern California Mediation Center in San Rafael and have been recognized as an Advanced Practitioner by the Family Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution.