My Background
I am a mental health professional with expertise in learning disabilities and parent education.
I graduated college from New York University with a degree in Creative Writing. As much as I have always loved writing, I knew that I needed my work to focus on helping so I started off my career as a substance abuse counselor in a methadone clinic for adults with heroin addiction. Working at the clinic gave me a lot of freedom to be creative and I used that freedom to run different kinds of programming and groups. One of my favorite things to do was to run family groups. I loved the interactions between the family members and I loved seeing children there but it soon became clear to me that my passion was really focused on working with children.
I went back to school, got my teacher certification and went on to teach elementary, middle and high school for almost 10 years. I loved being with the children and I loved being a teacher but I found that much of the work I did as a teacher came from a foundation of counseling and while I loved teaching, I found myself missing counseling more and more.
I went back to school again, got my MA in counseling and came back as a school counselor. I worked first at the elementary and then at the high school level. It was during this time that my own children started having academic difficulties that would soon be diagnosed as dyslexia. In order to understand how best to help them, I learned everything I could learn about learning disabilities and related disorders. I read everything I could find. I talked to as many experts as I could get to talk to me. I became the "go to" person at my daughters' school and it was this knowledge base that I was able to use to help my children. I learned to advocate and work with my daughters' strengths and my daughters thrived and flourished. What I learned as a parent I used more and more as a professional and I realized that if I took my knowledge even further, I could help even more people so I went back to school again and received a doctorate degree in education with a focus in special education.
Since that time, I have been lucky enough to use all of my experiences and knowledge to help many people. Aside from helping the children that I work with, I have also been able to spread my knowledge professionally and have been a guest speaker at many national organizations including the yearly meeting of both the New Jersey School Counselor Association's and the New Jersey Association for College Counselors as well as the national meeting of the Learning Disability Association.
Going back to my writing roots, I started writing professionally and have written on a variety of topics extensively including general parenting, parenting students with learning disabilities, and issues related to college, among many others. My most recent work was published by Routledge Press in 2020 and is a book which explores the role of elementary school counselors in relation to students with learning disabilities. My previous book, which focused on the high school counselor's role in helping students with learning disabilities, was released by Routledge in 2019. In addition, I have also written for the American School Counselor magazine and am co-author of several peer reviewed articles focused on bullying in relation to food allergies. My newest book proposal (a book for parents of children with learning disabilities and related disorders) is currently in review with Hopkins Press.
I am a mental health professional with expertise in learning disabilities and parent education.
I graduated college from New York University with a degree in Creative Writing. As much as I have always loved writing, I knew that I needed my work to focus on helping so I started off my career as a substance abuse counselor in a methadone clinic for adults with heroin addiction. Working at the clinic gave me a lot of freedom to be creative and I used that freedom to run different kinds of programming and groups. One of my favorite things to do was to run family groups. I loved the interactions between the family members and I loved seeing children there but it soon became clear to me that my passion was really focused on working with children.
I went back to school, got my teacher certification and went on to teach elementary, middle and high school for almost 10 years. I loved being with the children and I loved being a teacher but I found that much of the work I did as a teacher came from a foundation of counseling and while I loved teaching, I found myself missing counseling more and more.
I went back to school again, got my MA in counseling and came back as a school counselor. I worked first at the elementary and then at the high school level. It was during this time that my own children started having academic difficulties that would soon be diagnosed as dyslexia. In order to understand how best to help them, I learned everything I could learn about learning disabilities and related disorders. I read everything I could find. I talked to as many experts as I could get to talk to me. I became the "go to" person at my daughters' school and it was this knowledge base that I was able to use to help my children. I learned to advocate and work with my daughters' strengths and my daughters thrived and flourished. What I learned as a parent I used more and more as a professional and I realized that if I took my knowledge even further, I could help even more people so I went back to school again and received a doctorate degree in education with a focus in special education.
Since that time, I have been lucky enough to use all of my experiences and knowledge to help many people. Aside from helping the children that I work with, I have also been able to spread my knowledge professionally and have been a guest speaker at many national organizations including the yearly meeting of both the New Jersey School Counselor Association's and the New Jersey Association for College Counselors as well as the national meeting of the Learning Disability Association.
Going back to my writing roots, I started writing professionally and have written on a variety of topics extensively including general parenting, parenting students with learning disabilities, and issues related to college, among many others. My most recent work was published by Routledge Press in 2020 and is a book which explores the role of elementary school counselors in relation to students with learning disabilities. My previous book, which focused on the high school counselor's role in helping students with learning disabilities, was released by Routledge in 2019. In addition, I have also written for the American School Counselor magazine and am co-author of several peer reviewed articles focused on bullying in relation to food allergies. My newest book proposal (a book for parents of children with learning disabilities and related disorders) is currently in review with Hopkins Press.