About Terry

I have been a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica, California, since 1985. I specialize in deep transformation as well as creativity and its blocks. Besides being a psychotherapist, I have practiced and taught yoga over the past 40 years. I have been studying ballet and jazz for nearly as long. By maintaining nearly daily dance and yoga practices, I have learned the value of moving meditations.

Before becoming a psychologist, I toyed with the idea of becoming an artist. I have never given up this dream. I continue to draw on a regular basis. In addition to this book, I have written and illustrated four others. Many of the drawings in this book appeared in these books. I write about nonlinear science and the importance of clinical intuition to effective therapy.

In my personal life, I practice being creative partly by taking emotional risks. I jumped fields to write the libretto for an opera, entitled “Cracked Orlando,” that opened in 2010 in New York City with a ballet. Out of a deep commitment to the healing role of creativity, I co-founded and continue to curate a yearly art exhibition of psychotherapist art sponsored by the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, entitled “Mirrors of the Mind: The Psychotherapist as Artist.” 

I received my B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA.

During graduate school, I was trained primarily in cognitive-behavioral work and sought additional training at the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (GTILA), eventually becoming President.

I received training in hypnosis from Jean Holroyd and Michael Diamond at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, plus studied guided imagery with Muriel Fuller.