I received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1990 and a master’s in clinical social work from Florida State University in 1997. I hold clinical social work licenses in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

After completing my internship in 1997, I worked for four years at Seminole Community Mental Health, an outpatient clinic in Orlando, Fla., where I provided individual, couples and group psychotherapy. While there, I created a 90-minute weekly therapy group for the chronically mentally ill that ran for more than one year.

In 2001 I moved to Washington, D.C., and opened up a private practice in Woodley Park. In addition to my practice, I provide crisis evaluations of psychiatric patients at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md.

I have written on a variety of mental health topics for magazines and web sites, including Clinical Psychiatry News, Bethesda magazine, ivillage.com and 4therapy.com.