When I thought about my choices for education my interests and aptitudes were Art, Psychology and Physics. Since I couldn’t do all three, Clinical Psychology promised
to give me the best road to pursing the other two.

My life experiences had showered me with many paths by which to pursue my love
affair with learning. While grounded in Psychoanalytic Theory, my training ranged
from medical problems, to dreams, to the Rorschach “Inkblots” and back.

My research enabled me to integrate the Nobel Prize winning work of Roger Sperry,
on “Right Brain/Left Brain”, with the body of knowledge of Hypnosis, Imagery, Sign Language and Creativity. One may think these have little, or nothing, to do with one another. But they have everything to do with what we do as artists.

Over my 25 years of practice I have held dear to two objectives: the privacy of my weekends (for my own art) and my work with artists. In addition to my mainstream practice, I have reserved almost 50% of my time for artists of all modes: writers, musicians, photographers, actors, sculptors, dancers and visual artists.

Because artists are often under-compensated, when necessary this has comprised
my ‘pro bono’ work. Thus, I have had the joy of working at one time with both very successful artists – those who have arrived -- as well as with those artists in the estimated 90% who are not able make a living at their art. I have watched the latter
group grow into the former. And from all of this, I can tell you that what precedes
financial success, is the inner peace of valuing one’s own work.

I know the many challenges facing artists in producing their work, in selling themselves
to the world, in facing success, in losing hope and in managing their personal relationships. I know how important to success – both personal and financial --
it is to face every one of these obstacles. And I have learned a great deal about
the tools that it takes to do so.

I have had the opportunity to draw from all of these experiences -- as an artist
and as a psychologist -- to devise methods, exercises and strategies to overcome
our obstacles. And more important than all the rest, I have found ways to discover
the “Artist in Residence” in each person. In the spirit of fun and humor my
workshops offer these lessons of discovery that I have learned.

And in case one thinks personal relationships don’t play a role in working with artists,
I can assure you that in Art – as in Life -- it is ALL about relationships. And all of it
begins with managing the relationship with that undiscovered part of one’s self.

This, to me, is what being a Mentor is all about.