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About Me
I grew up thinking
I would like to help people. I thought I might want to be
a psychologist. However, I believed I could not be a psychologist
because I was gay. (In the sixties that was probably an accurate
assumption.) After attending Bakersfield College for two years,
I went to UCLA and majored in mathematics and minored in music.
I also earned a California State Teaching Credential there.
I taught high school mathematics and music for eleven years.
Later, at USC I earned a masters degree in choral conducting.
After working for quite some time as a church choral conductor,
I began working toward a masters degree in psychological counseling
at Antioch University. Antioch's California satellite campus
is located in Marina del Rey.
I began a counseling
internship and graduate supervision at the Los Angeles Gay
and Lesbian Center. In 1989 I completed the required 3,000
intern training hours. I then passed my written and oral exams
to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. When my internship
at the Gay and Lesbian Center ended I continued volunteering
as a therapist and a supervisor for another ten years.
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About the same time I joined
the private practice of Patrick Thyne and Associates in Pasadena,
California. We are a group of five therapists who meet weekly to
discuss our work as therapists. We frequently bring in experts in
a variety psychological fields to challenge us to grow and refine
our skills. I work principally with gay men on a wide variety of
life issues. These issues include relationships, careers, coming
out, gay identity, anxiety, depression, sex, dealing with parents
and bosses, re-parenting ourselves, addictions, healing old hurts,
etc.
I also work regularly with
gay couples and am the therapist for a gay men's group. The theoretical
style I use in psychotherapy is a combination of the newer person-centered
(humanistic) theories combined with traditional concepts from psychoanalytic
therapy. I believe that what we crave most is deep-down understanding.
It can be healing just to know that someone else "gets it". A
famous psychiatrist once wrote, "To be understood is more powerful
than to be loved." (Heinz Kohut)
My inner kid was right! I
like helping people. I like being a therapist.
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