I am primarily engaged in the practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. I have been in practice for over 35 years. Though I do lots of other things as well, (teaching, writing, presenting papers), talking to people individually is where my heart lies. I have always been drawn to emotional connection and am fascinated by the choices people make in their evolving journeys. I studied psychology as an undergraduate, however did not find the behavioral research going on at my university spoke to me or to the way it feels to live life. I preferred questions and discussions about how life is lived ‘from the inside out’ and I eventually discovered philosophy and psychoanalysis, both of which continue to speak to me. I enjoy facilitating others in their own journey to find what speaks to them, recognizing that we all discover and create our own unique paths.
Because loving (in the broadest sense) is fundamental to human nature, I have focused on this aspect of lived experience and all the different patterns or blocks that can get in the way. I have developed two areas of expertise over the years that dovetail with my interest in love – erotic life and sexual boundary transgressions – both of which pose special challenges in the realm of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. In the psychoanalytic world, erotic life refers to how we love and are loved on every level, including but not limited to our sexuality. How power intersects with our erotic lives, both in fantasy and in some real way, is central to our everyday feelings of confidence and inner strength. Much of this will get played out in the clinical setting. Broadly speaking, the coincidence (and collision) of love and power has been my primary area of study since becoming a psychologist/psychoanalyst.
I have been fortunate to have my areas of interests coincide with the needs of my profession. My writing and teaching have culminated in receiving several awards. In 2006, I was the recipient of the Karl A. Menninger Memorial Award and the Felix and Helena Deutsch Prize for my paper, “The Threat of Male to Female Erotic Transference.” Along with my co-author Christopher Fowler, I won an Honorable Mention, Phyllis W. Meadow Award, for excellence in psychoanalytic writing for our paper, “Altering Psychotic Process: A Case Study of Psychoanalytic Interventions with a Schizophrenic Patient.” In 2010, I was the recipient of the Symonds Prize for my paper, “The Guilty Pleasure of Erotic Countertransference: Searching for Radial True.” I have also been awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award from The Cambridge Health Alliance in 2013.
I am a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, and Assistant Professor, Part-time at Harvard Medical School. Along with my colleague Martha Stark, MD, I am Co-Director of a blended, online program in Psychoanalytic Studies sponsored by William James College. I have consulted with, evaluated, supervised or treated over 350 cases of therapist-patient sexual boundary transgressions. I have authored and presented numerous papers on the evaluation and treatment of therapists who have engaged in sexual misconduct with a focus on training and supervisory issues. My first book, Sexual Boundary Violations: Therapeutic, Supervisory and Academic Contexts, was published by Jason Aronson in 2007. My second book is a discussion of love, sexuality and erotic life more generally. It is entitled Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios and was published in 2014 by Routledge. My third book, “Transference, Love, Being: Essential Essays from the Field” is a compilation of 37 brief essays covering a range of topics in psychoanalytic theorizing and clinical technique, all of which emphasize the crucial role of love in the work we do. This book is published by Routledge in 2022.
Through a series of expansive essays, my third book explores the centrality of love in psychoanalytic practice. Starting with the immersion of the analyst, this book reimagines several aspects of the psychoanalytic process, including transference, countertransference, boundaries, embodiment, subjectivity and eroticism. To love is to cultivate to be. Psychoanalysis, as essentially vitalizing, is a playspace for taboo subjects within clear and safe parameters. Interweaving loving, being and perceiving, this book provides challenging new perspectives on the analyst’s subjectivity, receptivity and its immersive influence on analytic process. These essays refine theoretical understandings of the irreducible and omnipresent nature of love in psychoanalysis, thereby offering clarity to psychoanalysts, psychodynamic therapists and scholars through the often-prohibited love and eroticism, here viewed as indispensable to psychoanalytic theory and practice.
I have two online courses and I have been the recipient of several awards. My writings have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, Russian and Farsi.
