ABOUT

An author with a Ph.D. in psychology and an analytical perspective, I’m devoted to the development of the authentic Self and the care of the soul.

I knew I was destined to be a writer when my illustrated blue-ribbon paper, Abraham Lincoln: Boy from a Log Cabin, was posted outside Mrs. Evans’ second grade classroom. Since then, I’ve authored two books, several book chapters, and thousands of articles, papers, and essays for a wide variety of publications.

I spent the majority of my career working in the nonprofit sector as an award-winning adoption professional, child advocate, and activist. A popular presenter, lecturer, and visiting scholar, my seminal books Ethics in American Adoption and Adopting and Advocating for the Special needs Child have made me a sought-after consultant to courts, government and private agencies, film, and television to this day.

My late husband and I raised thirteen children who entered the family through marriage, birth, and adoption. His death during our 30th year of marriage left me with seven children still at home. Thereafter followed the successive losses of a beloved hānai daughter, the family business and income, and the dream home my husband and I had designed and built together.

These catastrophic losses took me off the straightforward path and into the hinterlands of analytical psychology, depth work, and mourning. I spent a decade in what Dante called the “forest dark.”

A few years ago, I helped the youngest of our thirteen children to move out of state, returning home to live alone for the first time in my life. And so it was that I began my third half of life at the keyboard, and found my way to you.

Thanks for visiting, and godspeed.