About Me 
Hello and welcome to my website. There are a few things you should know about me. My legal first name is Kathleen. However, I have been called Kitty all my life. If you choose to work with me and ask, I will gladly tell you the story behind my nickname.
I am a licensed clinical social worker. I have been a professional therapist most of my adult life, but I believe I was born to do this work.
As a fourth grader, one of my friends dubbed me “Dear Abby” because so many of my classmates came to me for help in solving their problems. I read Dibs In Search of Self, by Virginia Axline when I was 12. “Dibs” is the story of a young boy who chooses not to speak because of problems in his life. Virginia Axline, his play therapist, helps him “find himself.” As I was reading the book, I felt a thrill inside. A voice deep within me declared, “This is what I am meant to do with my life!”
I have done this work for the last twenty years. Most of my clients are and have been older than Dibs. On occasion I have used “play therapy,” but the purpose for my work has always been to help people find themselves - to know more fully who they are and what they were created to become.
I have worked for an agency that serves young people between 12 and 26 years of age. I have spent 10 years working in an inner city high school. What a privilege it is to get to know so many young people with diverse backgrounds and needs. I have co-led numerous support groups in this school setting and also as a volunteer at the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley where I have been an active member. I have learned as much from the young people I have met as I hope they have from me.
While I enjoy working with young people, I have not confined my work to youth. I work with older adults in my private practice and under the auspices of the Muscular Dystrophy Association where I facilitate an ALS (Lou Gerhig's disease) support group. In these settings I have also learned more from my clients and the people with ALS and their caregivers than I could possibly teach them.
Therapy is always a two-way relationship. My clients grow, I grow, and everyone benefits. That is why I love my work. Over the years I have learned that traditional therapeutic techniques can be beneficial. However, there are times when the most dedicated, invested client hits a wall and can’t move forward. I used to believe there wasn’t much I could do to resolve that situation.
Life is a journey and each of us is embarked on one. My personal path has been a bumpy ride but one that has helped me understand more fully who I am. My struggles helped me be more empathic with those enduring their own struggles on their life’s journey.
My daughters have ‘left the nest’ and both my parents have passed away in the last 10 years. These ‘losses’ have launched me on a spiritual quest that has included different experiences. I have learned to meditate. (I share this skill with some of my clients.) I have participated in a vision quest, read a variety of New Age books, and discovered the religion of Spiritualism. Spiritualism is a religion based on the belief that life continues after the change called death. These things have informed and enhanced my life and hence my professional practice, but have not necessarily transformed it.
Several years ago I read Same Soul, Many Bodies by Brian Weiss. For the second time in my life I felt that inner thrill- the one I felt when I read Dibs. “This is it,” I heard from within. “This is what I am going to do with the REST of my life! This is the tool I need to help people move past their stuck places!” Dr Weiss, a classically trained and highly respected psychiatrist, describes how he uses hypnosis to “regress” clients to earlier times in their present lives or past lives, or even “progress” them to future lives in order to move past stuck places and help them to heal in their current life situations. I was excited beyond words!
It was my honor to be trained by Dr. Weiss (and his wife Carol) in August, 2006. I took his course in past life regressions. It was a wonderful experience and one I would like to share with you. I believe this process can change and enhance your life – perhaps even transform it!
Whether you are interested in traditional therapy to work on the usual issues of daily life, hypnosis to help let go of a bad habit, or hypnosis to explore the basis for otherwise difficult to solve issues in your life, I hope you will contact me so that we will embark on a great adventure together!
To learn more, visit my blog.