I am Board Certified
in Rehabilitation Psychology by the American Board of Professional
Psychology (ABPP), and am now retired from research and
teaching as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral
Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School
of Medicine where I contributed my services from 1991 to
2016.
In my work, I was often called upon to integrate my advanced
training in clinical neuropsychology, family therapy, and
sex therapy. Probably far more significant, though, were
my core beliefs about psychotherapy: I am of the conviction
that psychotherapy is a fundamentally sacred process, not
a technical procedure.
In the overwhelming majority of instances, the true purpose
of psychotherapy should be expressed in the genuine response–accurate
and selfless–of a psychotherapist to some crisis
in the way that another person experiences their humanness–not
in manipulations to engineer a treatment for psychiatric
disorder. The single most important activity of psychotherapy,
therefore, is the establishment of a committed but non-possessive
relationship in which the authentic dialogue of mutuality
can occur.
I firmly believe that this kind of mutual coming-into-relationship
between two people, meeting face-to-face, is the necessary
condition for psychological and spiritual healing. This
humanizing relationship must be radically individualized
and fully confidential. Most of my energies as a psychotherapist
were devoted to seeing that these conditions were met to
the greatest extent possible.
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