EDUCATIONI totally "get" kids. I share my love of music with them, because music has made my life joyful. To see their eyes light up, to know they are feeling the music move through them, is an intangible, yet very real, experience that I am blessed to have myself, and provide for others, each and every day. Specialties: children with disabilitiesCOUNSELINGI have a long-held belief that every person needs a "witness" to her life. When a child falls and skins her knee, she wants Mommy to "kiss it better.” The magic is neither in the kiss nor in the love behind it; rather, the magic is in the empathy. The child feels better because her pain was acknowledged and understood, and effort was exerted to remedy it. She accepts sympathy because of the empathy shown. Mommy has been a "witness" to her life. In my view, every person needs and deserves a chance to have that witness, to tell her story, to speak freely about what has happened in her life, and to express her feelings about it. I am of the opinion that there is power in the story — both in the telling of it, and in the hearing of it. I have experienced great insight into my own ‘stories’ as I have reiterated them to a caring listener. Furthermore, as one speaks freely, she is able to put facts together and draw conclusions that are otherwise impossible while the thoughts are jumbled and unexpressed.