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Email Ilene or call 425.451.4388

  

About Ilene

Professional accreditation:
Washington State Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker; National Association of Social Workers; American Group Psychotherapy Association designation of Certified Group Psychotherapist; Co-chair of the Women in Group Psychotherapy special interest group of that organization; member of the Washington State Society of Clinical Social Workers, and a member of their education committee.

Areas of expertise:
Individual, couples, and group therapy to address: adjustment to life changes, including relationship loss; job loss, change or retirement; divorce, empty nest, grief and anticipated loss. Depression, anxiety, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, feeling stuck, stress, spirituality and religion, communication problems. Women’s issues. Men’s issues. Therapy groups for women, men, and mixed, are ongoing.

Therapeutic Modalities:
Insight-oriented and interactive. Self-psychology, object relations, psychodynamic focus. Cognitive-behavioral work.

 

My life has taken me on several paths. I was a math teacher, computer programmer and systems analyst before I studied Clinical Social Work. I received an MSW degree from Smith College, serving internships at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, NH, and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, KS. My thesis was entitled, Out of the Ashes: the transformative effects of tragedy. It examined women who were able to cope with a traumatic event, using the experience as a stepping stone to create positive life change.

I have a private practice in individual, couples, and group psychotherapy in Bellevue, WA. and have been consultant to the University of Washington Medical Center Dept. of Social Work.

Before this I was a therapist with the Westbrook Hospital (Maine) Eating Disorders Program, then an outpatient therapist with Family Services of King County. Previously, I established and led a group for bereaved parents at the Center for Grieving Children in Portland, ME. I also led workshops on assertive communications, values clarification, and stress management for a major corporation.