TERESA'S JOURNEY . . . SO FAR As you browse this website, you will get to know more about who I am, where I am in my own journey, and how I might be able to assist you or a loved one on their journey. I offer the following information to increase your comfort in making a decision about whether we would work well together. Personal History I am the second daughter of a second-generation Polish American father and a mother who was raised in an orphanage in the mid-west. I am a sister to three brothers and one sister. I have lived in seven states, mainly in the northeast corridor of the United States, but also in the mid-west, briefly. I have lived in the Philadelphia area for the past 26 years, where my family is well-rooted. I have two grown children, Andrew and Rebecca, who I raised as a single mother. I also have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Molly, who had often accompanied me to the office and assisted in the therapy. I enjoy reading, nature walks, music, gardening, spiritual connections, personal and spiritual growth and "collecting metaphors." Waterfalls and babbling brooks speak to my spirit. Education I earned my B.S. degree in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. I later earned an M.A. in Community Psychology (a program focusing on prevention and early intervention approaches and empowerment of individuals, families and communities) from Temple University. I graduated with a Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from Immaculata University, which I accomplished later in life once my children began high school. Between my Masters degree and my Doctorate, I became licensed and earned my credentials in Play Therapy through attendance at many conferences, workshops and seminars and through intensive supervision with an expert in Play Therapy. My more recent training has been in approaches that involve Mind-Body-Spirit connections or alternative healing approaches. I am trained in Reiki, Integrated Energy Therapy and/or One-Brain. I am also in the process of learning Process Acupressure and will soon be taking the Master’s level training in IET in order to be able to teach it to my clients and colleagues. Clinical Experience I have worked in a wide variety of settings, including a rape crisis center, a community mental health center, state and private psychiatric hospitals, private non-profit organizations, colleges and universities as well as private practice. My clients have ranged in age from 2 to 92 years of age. I have, as a psychologist, provided therapy (individual, group and family) to adults and children and supervision and training to other psychologists, social workers, therapists and interns. I have performed formal psychological testing and many psychological evaluations. This is not a focus of my current private practice. I do perform thorough, informal evaluations as the initial step of all my therapy, however. I have also been an adjunct instructor in several graduate programs in Psychology and School Counseling. In my early career, I worked in county-wide and state-wide programs for prevention of substance abuse, in county-wide community education and prevention programs in mental health and in transitioning formerly institutionalized adults with mental retardation back into community life. Interest in this Field I believe I was led to do healing work by the way my own life has unfolded. My own childhood and adult life have included challenges, as most people’s do. I have been guided to certain types of healing adventures over the course of my life including psychotherapy and alternative healing approaches for physical and social-emotional-psychological growth and healing. The life lessons I have experienced and the ways I have grown through these various healing opportunities have taught me in ways and at depths I could not have learned or experienced as fully in graduate school or internships alone. My own growth and healing process, combined with my education and clinical experience, have always reinforced for me my deep respect for and trust in each person’s Inner Guide, an appreciation of the Wisdom and Guidance in the Universe that comes into each of our lives in a multitude of creative forms, and a reliance on and respect for intuition and faith/spirituality as gifts for which I, personally, am eternally and deeply grateful as they enable to me to do this healing work and empower me in my journeying process. Spirituality Formally, I am a Quaker, also known as a Friend. As a Friend, I believe there is "That of God" in each person and that Divine Wisdom manifests itself in a "still small voice" within each of us. I do not consider myself to be religious, but I am very spiritual. My current Spiritual path involves an abiding interest in integrative and alternative healing methods that encompass the Mind-Body-Spirit Wisdom. I have excitedly begun to integrate Mind-Body-Spirit interventions into the work I do as a psychologist - to the degree that my clients and consultees are comfortable. This work has put me into contact with Spiritual Wisdom with which I had likely been working for a long time, but with whom I am more much more attuned, with remarkable success with my clients and consultees. Although I come to this work with a deep sense of spirituality and I believe that all good healing has a spiritual quality, this aspect is not obvious to those who do not approach life from a spiritual perspective and I do not ever attempt to indoctrinate others into my own or others’ spiritual perspectives. The spiritual aspect is as visible or invisible as each person chooses it to be. Therapy, teaching and guiding are all part of my life’s work and my true purpose. They are also ways in which I continue to learn and grow from each person and each experience in life. I am daily grateful for the opportunity to engage in a healing art that is so enriching to me as well as to my clients and to share this excitement and my own life lessons with trainees and consultees as they also develop their own skills and techniques as healers. Top of Page | Site Map