Sometimes it can feel as though something is fundamentally wrong with you—like you don’t belong or don’t matter. In response, you might ruminate, withdraw, overwork, drink, or distract yourself…yet the feeling still has you in its grip. I help clients change how they relate to their feelings: instead of living at the beck and call of every passing emotion, or trying to fight off unpleasant feelings, you’ll learn to meet your inner experience with awareness and acceptance, and to align your actions with your values and commitments (rather than with your fleeting emotions).
I work from an ACT / DBT perspective, and have been influenced by my experience living in Buddhist monasteries, by meditation practice, and by practice of somatic modalities. I specialize in working with men and also co-lead men’s retreats throughout the year.
I became a therapist to help people live more meaningful lives. Therapy should make a difference, not just rehash the same old stories—and if it isn’t making that difference, then we need to take a clear look at why and adjust.
I have a somewhat eclectic background. I was born and raised in Texas, but spent about 6 years abroad as an adult (mainly in Japan and England, with a bit of South Asia and West Africa in the mix) and lived in a few different locations within the US before ending up in Chicago in 2017. Becoming a therapist felt a something of a home-coming. As a teenager I had a strong interest in somatic modalities (e.g, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique). I later become fascinated by Buddhism and lived in a monastery in Japan for awhile, and spent time engaged in long periods of meditation in temples in northern India, Burma, and Sri Lanka. I was then in academia for about 15 years, doing research on medieval Japan. (I still teach a course on reading Buddhist texts in Japanese, but have more-or-less left the academy.) The process of leaving academia and becoming a therapist was a process of returning to my body, to my sensory experience, to a curiosity about the internal world. Unlike the sort of meditation I had done and continue to practice, I was now exploring this in the context of the therapeutic relationship. I've also been profoundly shaped by my involvement with Victories, a Chicago-area men's organization that helps men connect with each other in deep and meaningful ways. Currently my day-job is as a full-time therapist at Turning Point Behavioral Health, a mental health clinic in Skokie, Illinois. My passion, though, is working at the clinic of, and studying with, Paul Holmes, who has developed his own unique approach that builds on the behavioral modalities of DBT, ACT, and FAP (Functional Analytic Psychotherapy).