I am a clinical psychologist, licensed in both Florida and Illinois. I obtained my Psy.D. from Adler University in Chicago, Illinois. My practice is dedicated to psychotherapy of teens (16 and up), adults, couples, and families in a private setting. I provide therapy for a wide range of problems including stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar, trauma, marital and family dynamics, and work-related problems.
My focus, however, is on Health Psychology, a field to which I have dedicated the last 10 years of my practice. I specialize in this field, with a certificate from UMASS. I have a vast caseload of experience in this field, including working in a Northwestern Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic alongside the medical team. There and at my private practice, I have been collaborating with primary care physicians, Oncologists, Cardiologists, and Pulmonologists from Northwestern Memorial Medical Center in Chicago, and North Shore University Physicians in the Chicago suburbs to better support their patients and give them the tools to better cope and manage their lives.
Health Psychology is currently featured prominently in large healthcare systems due to the immediate and profound impact on patient care. The efficacy of health psychology has been demonstrated by extensive, peer-reviewed research and is a well-established field of Psychology.
With my clients’ consent, I collaborate with their physicians, in all specialties, as well as with their therapists and immediate caregivers. We work to achieve their medical goals while building the clients’ skills such as acceptance, independence, accountability, self-control, and other coping skills. I educate clients in pain regulation strategies and side-effects management while reducing clients’ levels of depression, anxiety, and distress. In addition, medical issues can further exacerbate and complicate employment, fiscal, marital, and family relationships, erode self-esteem, self-reliance and induce high stress, anger, depression, feeling overwhelmed, self-doubt, helplessness, and fear of death. All these issues and others are part of the treatment plan.
Recently, I was able to provide emotional and cognitive support to multiple clients that were diagnosed with breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers, and supported a patient fearful of controlling their blood sugar with the use of an Insulin pump. I guided a client through the arduous emotional process of accepting and agreeing to undergo a high-risk organ transplant and supported other clients and their families in dealing with acute and chronic conditions such as heart failure, dementia, and debilitating lung disease.
My goal for my clients is to acquire, through therapy, a degree of insight, judgment, self-management, and control, and to allow them to reach a position of self-awareness and decision making that will be useful for them throughout their entire lives.