About

I graduated from the physical therapy program at Ithaca College in 1982, was trained in Neurodevelopmental Treatment in 1988, and in 1991 I received my Masters of Arts degree in rehabilitation technology from San Francisco State University. In 2014, I received my DPT from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

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Since the beginning of my career, I have been devoted to babies and children. After living and working in Malaysia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Mexico, I understood the deep need not only for therapy, but also for seating and mobility, especially for children. I taught extensively in this field and wrote the book, Special Seating: An Illustrated Guide, which is used internationally to provide practitioners a guideline to assess and design wheelchairs/seating systems for people with disabilities. My lifetime dream is that children in the world would have well-fitting wheelchairs. This dream is now being realized as many people and organizations worldwide have also had this dream.

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This desire to help children drew me into the field of manual therapy, first studying Craniosacral Therapy through the Upledger Institute. Since 1992, I have studied extensively with Jean-Pierre Barral, DO, MRO(F), RPT and other teachers through the Barral Institute. My deep study and practice has led me into teaching for the Barral Institute internationally. I have also studied considerably in the field of Somatics and trauma, including Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy Training and Zapchen Somatics with Julie Henderson.

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Because I have found that Barral's manual therapy can help so many children, my next dream is to share and teach this work with those working with babies and children. My clinical work and research led me to write 2 volumes of Pediatric Manual Therapy: Visceral and Neuromeningeal Manipulation. My goal is to mentor therapists in this work so that more babies and children may have healthier lives, freer of restrictions.