Tools4Life LLC

I have worked as a Marriage and Family Therapist for twenty-eight plus years. I have assisted in healing fractures within intimate relationships and within the individual when healing the family system was not possible. I have gathered information, diagnosed problems and supported the family in creating an effective treatment plan designed to have a lasting impact. And if you would like to know more about my professional experience, including teaching psychology at the university level, please take a look at my vitae.

For the past two years plus, I have been combing mindfulness-based mediation with counseling and seeing dramatic results! This idea stemmed from my own struggle to re-frame my old toxic thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, challenging me to look deeply into my soul and to engage in some personal “mindful inquiry.” I realized that I was rushing through life rather than experiencing and enjoying it.

My “mindful inquiry” led me to explore a second master’s degree which focused on Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation. Finding more peace in my life inspired me to want to assist others in finding a personal sense of peace – within their relationships and themselves. Much of my career has been spent as an advocate for parents and children, and I have found that being able to efficiently mediate child custody issues in situations of separation and divorce is instrumental in alleviating as much pain for the children and their parents as possible. It takes an additional level of commitment, emotional investment and time for all concerned, including myself, but the results are worth it.


My purpose at “Tools4Life LLC” is multilayered. I help parents advocate in the best interests of their children and learn to redefine the conflict of their current situations. Living a whole-hearted perspective will support their role as a parent and single person. I educate parents to prompt new reflection as a part of their evolution as a family. And lastly, I can define conflict as a medium of change that is less fear-inducing thus, leaving room for the possibility of transcendence within the family unit. I have discovered that the blending of counseling and mediation looks a lot like “peacemaking.” It is necessary to transcend the narrow perspectives of mediation as a craft and propose that peacemaking is more about creating “relationship art.” (me). As a Peacemaker, I intend to create a clearer understanding of conflict as a means by which we may continue to dialogue and improve even the most difficult relationships.

A final word, the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus stated, “No man (or woman) ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s (she’s) not the same man (woman).” My intention via the act of mediation is to improve the most difficult of relationships.