I’m a licensed clinical psychologist who lives and practices in New York City. I see individual clients for psychotherapy and facilitate workshops to build the counseling skills of other health workers. In my personal and professional relationships, I’m firmly committed to an anti-racist and an anti-discriminatory approach.
I earned my PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Washington, where I trained as a behavior therapist and learned from the clinical scientists who developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP). I finished my clinical training in The Bronx at Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I specialize in harm reduction, Motivational Interviewing, and mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Before becoming a psychologist, I worked for nearly 20 years in harm reduction. For example, I delivered case management for people who were formerly homeless, trained HIV workers throughout California, counseled patrons of bathhouses as they tested for sexually transmitted infections, and supervised methadone providers to practice Motivational Interviewing. Much of my career has focused on developing the capacity of organizations to serve people marginalized in one way or another from health care. My desire to become a psychologist came from these experiences in community-based settings.
In addition to clinical work, I’m a research scientist. I completed an MPH in epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health and a three-year fellowship at The HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, both at Columbia University. I now conduct NIH-funded research as an Assistant Professor, to learn how to reduce intersectional stigma so that health services can fully engage their clientele as whole people.
I’m a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), and the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). My New York State license number is 023166.