HELLO, I’M DR. CLARK!
I’d like to tell you a little about myself, because it is important for you to feel a sense of trust and connection with me if we are going to work together. So first, my life in a nutshell:
I grew up in New Jersey (land of the best tomatoes in the world and Bruce Springsteen), then left to travel around the country, footloose and fancy free, for several years. I lived in Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California and had jobs ranging from agricultural assistant (I have a bug named after me!)
to bartender to bank teller to veterinary assistant. During these years, I was also a house parent at a drug rehab and then, with my husband, worked for a private psychiatric facility where we lived with the patients as surrogate parents. It became increasingly clear to me that counseling was more than just another job, it is who I am, and so I returned to New Jersey to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Counseling.
After graduation, we moved to the place that keeps us in permanent vacation mode in spite of working 12 hour days– sunny, tropical South Florida. I have been a Licensed Mental Health Counselor here since 1993, working for both private and government substance abuse and counseling programs.
In 1996, I became a Certified Addictions Professional and in 1997, earned a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality. I combined the two fields to specialize in working with sexual addicts and their partners.
I became interested in working with transgendered individuals after attending an educative panel and some support groups. I went on to specialize with this population and, due to the lack of professionals with knowledge in this area, I began providing services to transgendered people around the country by telephone and internet video conferencing.
I teach graduate courses at a local university, conduct custody investigations for the courts, and provide Continuing Education for nurses, psychologists, counselors and social workers throughout South Florida. I am a Certified Supervisor for counseling interns. I love teaching and opened the Sex Therapy Training Institute and the Addictions Therapy Training Institute in order to prepare and train future sex therapists and addictions professionals to continue the important work in these fields.
I have learned a variety of interventions to effectively assist clients seeking personal growth and mental health in their lives. These interventions include cognitive-behavioral therapy, existential and reality therapy, to name a few. I am Certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, an exciting technique that is extremely effective in treating traumas, phobias, and generally disturbing thoughts and memories, in a relatively brief timeframe. In my private practice, I continue to work with individuals, couples, and groups with an incredibly wide array of concerns, which generally reduce to a yearning for improved relationships and intimacy.
As I recognized a commonality in the people I saw over the years, which mirrored those issues I dealt with in my life, I conceptualized a way of looking at our highly stimulating lifestyles as the result of a perpetually addictive state that disconnects us from each other and the universal life force. It is from this personal growing awareness that I wrote my book Addict America: The Lost Connection. (insert link)
I am happy to provide initial consultations by telephone or e-mail with no charge so please, contact me any time to discuss whatever is on your mind. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
