My name is Diane
and I have been a healer/counselor/psychologist all of my life, long before I received my PhD in 1987. I am an ardent believer in the story as a means to an end, as a path that embraces healing.
As a healer/coach/therapist for over 30 years, I define my primary role as one bearing witness to Your story. I recognize that crises connected to trauma, loss, identity and transitions provide an opportunity to revisit the part of ourselves that has not worked with the parts we want to build, where discord ultimately can lead to integration and health.
Telling your story provides an opportunity to heal from the inside out, to witness yourself from a distance as one would a character in a novel or an actor in a film - allowing for a new perspective, agency and healing.
Sharing your story provides an opportunity to put the shattered pieces back together, can turn chaotic and fragmented memories into a more structured and understandable story, reducing anxiety and depression, improving physical and mental health.
My work is all about helping my clients tell their stories and ultimately find their way back to themselves, their truth, their peace of mind.
Telling your story can change the course of your life and in so doing, can help you find your way home.
TESTIMONIALS
***”I first met Diane 30 years when I was 36 years old and stuck in an abusive relationship that I didn't know how to get out of because I didn't think I was worth it. I desperately needed someone to trust, to listen and help. Diane provided those things and much more, guiding me through the difficult process of realizing I do have purpose and worth. Along the way she has become a good friend as well, giving honest feedback that is sometimes hard to hear but that has helped me become a stronger and more independent woman, a better partner and mom, and a successful writer. She is very responsive and such a good listener, always following my train of thought when I share detailed and often emotional stories about work, relationships, loss, fear, anger, the craziness of the world around us .... I value her tremendously and am so very grateful to have known her all these years. She makes me feel seen and heard.” Kathy
***”You are absolutely one of the most significant people to have touched my life. You have touched me as deeply as were my early-life traumas that you helped me to get some distance from. That sentence probably sounds weird. I've never said it before. It's probable that no one ever has, in any language. But it's for you.” E.S.
***”Thank you again for agreeing to embark on our project. I think that it is, and will be, unusual for anyone to invite their former therapist to submit their original material to a book; but you and I did some good work and I feel like acknowledging that.” E.S.
***”You are unquestionably one of the most important people I have ever known. I sort of . . . uh . . . gestated . . . in the room we spent some fourteen years in and . . . er . . . emerged as some sort of 160 pound butterfly. The creature that I first walked into that room as was a very, very undeveloped one. So I'm never gonna forget you.” Robin
***”You stand out on my horizon big time because you enabled me to belong to myself -- which was also impossible for me, and a sensation unknown to me, prior to my having met you.” B.E.
***”And I could not have done this without you. No way. I owe you big-time. I don't believe in God; at least, not in the usual sense of the word. But you WERE Heaven-sent.” E.S.
***”At 67" (p.s.: I turned 69 two weeks ago), I can feel myself slowing down, and Winter somehow invites retrospection at any age. I have a lot more to look back on these days than I ever did before, and I’m spending some time in fitting together the numerous jigsaw-pieces of the things I’ve done and seen, and lining them up in various interesting combinations -- just to see the differently illuminated connections and perspectives I can create with them. I can tell you that it’s better quality entertainment than most t.v. shows offer. And it’s a reality show!
One key piece that I keep on coming up with repeatedly is having met and worked with you. As a matter of fact, the word “key” seems particularly apt. You were, for me, if I might put it so metaphorically, the key that opened a paddock that had been rusted shut and forgotten about for years. The journey has been awesome – a word that is much overused these days. Lady Gaga is NOT awesome.But I have some increased capacity for genuine awe, and I see many things as being awesome -- from insects to birth to political systems to neural nets to stars . . . I think that for me, of the many serious things I’ve ever seen, done, climbed, been crushed by, dug into, wrestled with, and learned from, having known and worked with you ranks as pretty much the most awesome one.” Erv
***I’ve had the privilege of working with Diane during some of the most pivotal times of my life. The experience was truly life-changing.
Diane’s presence is solid yet deeply comforting. She created a space where I felt safe, supported and genuinely heard. She listened and responded to me with such understanding and empathy that it often felt as though she could personally relate to my experience. She always remembered things I shared which made me feel valued and understood on a very deep level.
Diane’s attentiveness and ability to meet me at all times made every session productive and meaningful.
I will always be grateful for the work Diane and I did together.”
Susan