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 Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist MFC #14417 405 Chinn Street Santa Rosa, CA 95404 707-481-4343 map 7 Fourth Street #52 Petaluma, CA 94952 Email Milton
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As a therapist, I would describe myself as psychodynamic, developmental, systems oriented, and eclectic. I believe that if a child's developmental needs are met by appropriate and attentive parenting that the child's resulting curiosity will drive him/her to solve the inevitable puzzles of growth and change. With experimentation, mistakes, and re-experimentation until mastery occurs, the steps to maturity and life purpose emerge. The human being loves puzzles and if one's needs are met, those puzzles are challenges that add value to one's life and the lives of others.
Early in my career I was interested in working with adolescents and thought that teaching speech and drama in high school would be a way of making a contribution. While attending California State University in Chico, working on a teaching credential, I discovered the Master of Social Welfare and Correctional Counseling Program. I was drawn to the focus on rehabilitation through early intervention with minor legal offenders using family counseling. My internship was in Contra Costa County's Probation Department in a special unit that worked with the families of young people in trouble with the law. I discovered that the application of family therapy with adolescent youth worked because most often, youth were in trouble for "acting out" feelings that were being generated by serious issues within their families. Effective work resulted in a youth not going deeper into the correctional system. My first job after my master's degree, was directing a youth diversion clinic in the Livermore Police Department. For the next six years, I continued to be impressed by how effective the diversion via family therapy approach was. The clinic maintained an 85% rate of non-recidivism over five years with first time youthful offenders. In 1980, I left diversion work to develop a private practice as a therapist and continue my work with families, couples and individuals at various locations throughout the Bay Area. After 20 years of working as a therapist in private practice, I took my "systems" training in individual and family therapy and developed a business management consulting company with a focus on executive coaching and team building. I enjoyed working with executive leadership and senior managers in a number of large technology corporations, a national law firm and several start-up companies. This work went well until the economy weakened and the consulting business became more difficult. In 2004, after careful thought, I decided to return to private practice with renewed energy for the work of therapy and solving the puzzles of the past, present and future.
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