When I was a little girl, I lived in Germany along with the Berlin Wall and then in South Africa under Apartheid. I had very personal experiences with institutionalized racism and sexism, inter-generational trauma and systemic dehumanization of groups of people. Throughout my life I have been wrestling with how to bring down walls or heal “apartheid” in our individual and collective, internal and external landscapes.

My undergraduate education at the University of Chicago was focused on understanding cultures and how we “Other” people (i.e, victim/perpetrator dynamics) - my research was on Rape in Zimbabwe and the Treatment of Marital Rape in the US Legal System. My passion at the time was to pursue a legal career to work for human rights. After working in Washington DC and Hong Kong at an international law firm, I realized that bringing down walls externally in any sustainable way requires bringing down inner walls.

My interest turned to inner dynamics - human connection and relationship, bringing down cultural, social, personal defenses/walls, fostering understanding, peace and healing. I entered a Masters program in Culture and Spirituality at the Sophia Center in California to explore how various cultures and wisdom traditions approach and try to answer timeless human questions - the problem of suffering, what is compassion, what is wisdom, what is healing? I studied Buddhist philosophy, the interface of mysticism and quantum physics, consciousness, eco-spirituality, the Universe Story with Brian Swimme as well as experiential modalities such as yoga, African dance and drumming, interplay, tai chi and art therapy.

This year was deeply transformative - I came to deeply value inner work. I entered a Masters and then Doctorate program in Psychology at New School University in New York and devoted my studies to understanding transference, counter-transference, projection and how to increase awareness of what is unconscious, whether defined as character armor, a way of being, defenses, or automatic thoughts. My dissertation researched Therapists’ Awareness of Counter-transference as a Predictor of Psychotherapy Process and Outcome and I found that the more aware therapists are of the full range of their emotional experience the better was their ability to connect, relate with and facilitate awareness and growth in their clients.

Also having lived in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States, I am aware of and sensitive to culture, race and gender issues. In graduate school I developed and taught courses at Eugene Lange College in New York on the Social Psychology of Gender and on Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination. I am passionate about cultivating greater awareness, compassion and self empowerment, and am dedicated to promoting social justice in the world through healing the world from the inside out.