In that spirit, though, I want to welcome you to this web site by offering a brief biography of my thinking. I am, after all, hoping to influence you — to help you see yourself, your work, your romantic relationships, your kids and your own parents, in a clearer, more productive, more creative and loving way.

I got my Ph.D. from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, an institution known then and now for its academic rigor and European laissez faire. This odd cross current gives the New School its legendary reputation for teaching many but graduating few. I did graduate, only because I was a National Science Foundation Fellow for three years which earned me way more than my share of attention from the faculty. It takes a lot of attention to get a Ph.D.

During those years I was also an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Psychology at The Cooper Union College in New York, which left me with a life long suspicion of the short work hours and long winded complaints of college professors, myself included. When I left to attend a Post-Doctoral internship at Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, I thought the seven A.M. meeting schedule was a misprint.

I did a two year Post-Doc, joined the Outpatient staff, and eventually became Director of Outpatient Psychiatric Services at the hospital. Finally I returned East, because Philadelphians come home to nest. In Philadelphia, I was the third Director of the Institute of Awareness, a high profile and controversial adult education program. Under my tenure, it closed. They say that was not my doing, but I have never been entirely sure.

All this time —starting in Graduate School with highly supervised psychoanalytic and group dynamics supervision, progressing through years of California training in family therapy, humanistic psychology, and psychodynamic study, with some classic behavior therapy and cognitive therapy training thrown over the years — I was practicing psychotherapy and learning from my patients.

I’ve been in private practice for thirty years, it’s the heart of what I do, it’s the basis of all my public speaking, my books, my columns, and most important, all my recommendations to you. Private practice is how I know what works, and what not to waste your time with. My gift as a therapist is my ability to see. I can read a pattern in your behavior or a problem your thinking, while you may only be able to bleed from banging your head blindly against it. My weakness as a therapist, though, is my tendency to blurt out what I see, long before someone is ready to hear it. That hurts. Public speaking and writing help me shore up that weakness. I write and speak about how people make their lives, their love affairs, their jobs, their parenting concerns, harder than they have to be. Then I point out the solutions that I have learned, over and over, work to make things better. Books and lectures can be so much more direct than psychotherapy because you, the reader, can take things less personally, at your own pace, without the pressure of me in the room and in your face.

I intend this web site to offer you the same direct, useful information to help you agonize less and enjoy your life more. Look for information in the newsletter, on the bulletin board, or in articles I post for you when I think I’ve got something worthwhile.

Let me know what you think. And, of course, tell me who helped shape your thinking.