training philosophy
Community-Oriented Growth
The Scholar-Practitioner Approach
My approach to training and consultation is grounded in a scholar-practitioner model — a commitment to uniting rigorous academic inquiry with lived clinical experience.
This dual stance reflects my belief that excellence in psychotherapy requires both intellectual depth and emotional presence.
I view training not as the transfer of techniques, but as a process of transformation — of the therapist’s perception, empathy, and capacity for attunement. The same principles that guide my work with patients apply to those I train: growth arises through relationship, reflection, and the courage to engage what feels difficult or unknown.
As part of this commitment, I remain immersed in ongoing doctoral-level study and advanced training in relational and affect-focused psychodynamic therapies. This continued scholarship allows me to integrate the latest developments in neuroscience, developmental theory, and experiential treatment into a clinically grounded and ethically reflective practice.
It ensures that my teaching and consultation are not just informed by best practices, but also responsive to the evolving complexity of human suffering in modern clinical contexts.
Contextual Training and the Realities of Modern Practice
Contemporary clinicians face unprecedented challenges — rapid sociocultural change, economic strain, and the erosion of meaningful connections in daily life. These forces shape both the therapist and the patient, influencing the very conditions in which treatment unfolds.
A training philosophy that ignores this context risks reinforcing the same patterns of disconnection our patients experience.
For this reason, my teaching emphasizes contextual sensitivity: understanding not only the individual psyche but also the social, cultural, and systemic fields in which symptoms develop.
In contrast to models that focus narrowly on symptom reduction or behavioral correction, advanced integrative training invites you to shift the present — to attend to what is unfolding now between therapist and patient, rather than striving toward a distant future outcome.
Lasting change often begins when the emotional reality of the present becomes fully recognized and worked through, rather than managed or bypassed.
Depth Training for Contemporary Clinicians
My programs are designed for therapists, trainees, and organizations seeking to develop a deeper, more relationally attuned way of working.
Each training or consultation sequence is tailored to the clinician’s developmental needs, clinical population, and theoretical background. Whether you are refining your affect-focused skills, seeking to integrate somatic and attachment-based approaches, or developing advanced case formulation capacity, we design our work to meet you where you are.
I have had the privilege of training clinicians across disciplines and levels of experience — from graduate trainees to seasoned psychotherapists — all united by a shared curiosity about the emotional processes that shape healing.
This diversity enriches the training experience, revealing how psychodynamic understanding can adapt flexibly to a variety of modalities, including trauma-informed, experiential, and integrative frameworks.
From Knowledge to Transformation
Many training programs emphasize either insight or technique — yet, as clinicians, we know that neither interpretation nor intervention alone transforms the patient.
Real change occurs when insight is embodied and affect is metabolized through relationship.
My teaching aims to help clinicians bridge that gap.
We focus on cultivating the ability to sense, tolerate, and engage emotion in real time — to translate theoretical understanding into living, relational contact.
This is the heart of advanced integrative training: not adding more tools, but refining perception, presence, and the therapist’s own emotional instrument.
Commitment to Growth
Engaging in clinical training is a mutual commitment. My role is to offer structure, accountability, and empathic challenge. Your role is to bring openness, honesty, and curiosity.
Transformation in clinical skill, like in therapy itself, arises when both participants are willing to stay in contact with what is most real — even when uncomfortable.
Training is not about perfection, but about precision, reflection, and authenticity. Together, we work toward cultivating a therapeutic presence capable of fostering genuine change.
Begin Your Training Journey
If you’re ready to engage in a process that bridges scholarship and practice, reach out to explore training opportunities or individual consultation.
Call (949) 294-7242 or email [email protected] to begin your journey toward deeper, more impactful clinical work.