I work with those who live in the southern California area as well as distance learners on an individual basis. That means, that after we have established we are a “good fit” on a phone interview, or face to face if you live in or near Santa Barbara, we embark on designing a training plan per the NFB/PT Training Guide guidelines, and your individual interests, strengths, and background. We assess the core classes you have had, those you will need, and how you will go about fulfilling the requirements. We determine how many years you might need to fulfill the 440 hours for the CAPF or CPT (if you qualify, i.e. if you are licensed in a mental health field), or 975 hours for your PTR. For those with a limited background in psychology, I advise you begin taking those required courses and begin your 200 hours of didactic work before pursuing your facilitation hours. If you have a strong psychology background, but limited poetry/writing experience, you are encouraged to take some of those core classes.

Once you have determined how long you think you might take to fulfill requirements, from two to five years, we set up a plan for facilitation and supervision hours. I lead a four hour peer/supervision group that meets once a month on Sundays either in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles. I require that local trainees attend these sessions which give you experience in facilitating groups, and are rich learning times to prepare you for this work. It is important that half of your 60 supervision hours (for CAPF and CPT) must be individual supervision hours. You sign a contract with me how many hours of supervision you will receive a month. During times when a trainee is doing a facilitation group each week, I require we have supervisions twice a month, sometimes more, depending on need. Whether local or long distance, supervision is mostly done on the phone, unless a face to face can be arranged.

Trainees take turns facilitating a group, working closely with me for literature selection, objectives, materials to be used, methodology, and anticipated results.

Each summer I lead a two-three day intensive training seminar in Los Angeles, which is a special time to deepen the learning and fine-tune the facilitation process.

My fee for individual supervision is $85/hour, whether face to face or on the phone. For a four hour group supervision it is the same, with two hours of peer experience, and two hours of supervision included.