About Mindy

What I Believe & What I Do:

  • I want each of my clients to have as full and balanced a life as possible.

  • I believe that we are not meant to overcome our challenges alone; everyone needs extra support and expert guidance at times.

  • I believe that everyone has a natural pull toward growth, happiness, and wholeness.  My role is to help you remove the obstacles that get in the way of this natural process.

  • I believe that people are the experts about themselves.  I don’t tell you who you are or what to do, but I do offer ideas, possibilities, and tools.  I help you sort out your feelings, wishes, values, and what's right for you.

  • I believe the personal is political. I am attentive to how each person's mix of cultural oppressions and privileges affects our issues, experiences, and choices.

  • I help you understand what you do that works well and how to make changes that would make your difficulties better.

  • I have numerous skills and tools to help you get to the causes of your challenges and build your strengths.

  • I help you to feel safe enough to talk about vital issues.

  • I am committed to ongoing learning and action about my privilege as white person, about systemic racism, and about how various oppressions are interconnected and different.

Professional Experience & Issues Addressed:

I have over 35 years of experience providing competent, compassionate, respectful, short-term and long-term psychotherapy to adults.  Using a whole-person, culturally sensitive approach, I help people look at their strengths and areas for growth.  Clients may choose to explore the emotional, physical, and/or spiritual aspects of their therapy issues.

I bring specialized insight, training and experience to help people with depression and anxiety, communication issues, sexual and physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, eating disorders, body image, misconduct/exploitation by other professionals, LGBTQIA+ issues, and addiction.

In my practice I draw from many types of therapy according to what I think would be helpful for each client.  These include Psychodynamic, Cognitive-Behavioral, Internal Family Systems, Gestalt, EMDR, Somatic Experience, Solution-Focused, Narrative, Transpersonal, Existential, Psychodrama, Feminist, Developmental, Strengths Based, Family Systems, and Connection-Oriented psychotherapies.

I earned my Masters and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Minnesota in Counseling and Educational Psychology.  My professional experience includes practicing psychology in several community mental health clinics, a University of MN clinic, an eating disorder counseling center, and many years in private practice.  My work as a women’s advocate at a shelter for domestic violence survivors, before graduate school, gives me a deeper understanding of what people need in order to overcome the impact of physical and sexual violence in their lives.

I have given professional and/or public trainings on professional boundary issues; eating disorders and body image; sexual exploitation of clients by therapists, clergy, and other professionals; conflict resolution; recovery from sexual abuse; dissociative disorders; LGBTQIA+ mental health issues; anti-heterosexism education; and domestic violence in various ethnic and small communities.

My writings have been published in several books and professional journals on the topics of exploitation of clients by professionals, domestic violence, and anti-heterosexism.

MY LATEST PROJECT

Watering the Heart Root

Workshops, Songs & Chants for Emotional & Spiritual Well-Being