I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner, chronic pain expert and chronic pain survivor. I’m the author of The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free and the creator of the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory. I’m a past president of the Northeast Regional Biofeedback Society. I’ve been in private practice in the Albany, NY area for over 25 years.
My training and experience have equipped me to help people with a broad range of emotional and physical challenges including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, ADHD, attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorders, brain injuries, insomnia and chronic pain. Because of my personal experience I have a particular place in my heart for people who suffer with chronic pain.
When I was 25 years old I developed a back injury that stopped me in my tracks. I had been healthy and active and I was creating a happy and meaningful life for myself. After the back injury I was in agony 24/7. I had to drop out of graduate school, where I was pursuing my degree in social work. For the next 3 ½ years I barely functioned. I went from doctor to doctor and none were able to help me. They prescribed drugs that didn’t help and made me into a zombie. Finally, I stumbled upon something that would help me when a friend recommended a book on the mind/body connection. The book mentioned biofeedback, which uses sensitive electronic instruments to measure the patient’s physiology and teach the patient how to control it. After the first session, my pain decreased by 50% because I learned that I could have some control over my body and my pain.
I continued to explore the mind/body connection while I continued to heal my back pain and got back to leading a productive life. A few years later I developed a problem with foot pain that plagued me for the next 14 years. I was in agony every time I walked more than a block or so and the things I’d learned that helped my back pain did not help my foot pain at all. I finally stumbled upon a treatment that helped, a bodywork technique called Rolfing. From this experience I learned that there is no one-size-fits-all pain treatment.
I know what it’s like to feel miserable and hopeless. My experience has taught me that the body and mind have tremendous healing capacity if given the right treatment. The goal of all of my efforts is to get people to the safest and most effective treatment for the problem they are having as quickly as possible, whether it’s through my in-office services, my phone consults, my book on chronic pain treatments, or the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory (visit my products page to find great recommendations for acute and chronic pain relief).
