ABOUT

People come to therapy for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they are distressed, frustrated, or angry. Sometimes they may be facing a life challenge or dilemma. The issues may be connected with relationships or with feelings about oneself. Talking it through can help. I encourage my clients to develop skills in self-understanding and self-healing so that they can develop both in their personal selves and in their interpersonal relationships, in their ability to work and to love, to play, to create and to enjoy solitude.

My first goal in our work together is to provide a safe place for you to express your feelings, get to know yourself better, and tell your story. Over time you can decide how deeply you want to go. I am open to anything you would like to talk about in any form in which you would like to express yourself. “Since there are feelings (& thoughts) I can’t express through the forms of society, here I make other forms, play-forms, to express them through:” (A.R. Ammons)  Play is the natural language of children and children come to therapy to play.  As I play with them, I begin to understand their world.  Adults and adolescents come to talk. They may talk directly about a particular issue, but they can also “play” in their talk, sharing their areas of interest, their dreams and daydreams, jokes, anecdotes, bits of remembered conversation, fragments of a favorite novel or nearly forgotten film. Together we piece these fragments into a coherent whole and we may discover together things you never knew about yourself.

I am a certified clinical psychologist in Israel, highly trained in psychoanalytically-oriented (psychodynamic) psychotherapy. I have many years of experience working in the public mental health system in Israel. Currently, I work at the Hadar Mental Health Clinic in Herzliya where I am in charge of the clinical psychology internship program and where I coordinate the staff team that treats adult victims of child sexual abuse. In addition to my work with normative clients, I work with individuals suffering from serious mental health issues and their families. In addition to psychodynamic training, I have training in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and in family systems theory and therapy. This background enriches my understanding of my clients. For clients who are looking for short-term therapy focused on a specific issue, I can offer CBT including psychophysiological work. I am a lifelong learner and continue to develop professionally through reading in the field as well as formal and informal study.