Headshot photos by Alison Wandzura

Biography…

I was the girl who wanted to play free association games when invited to sleep overs. It would go something like this:

“Cat” - “Dog”

“Bark” -”Noise”

”Fart!”

“hahaha!”

Dissolving into gleeful laughter, we’d then start all over again, until the words trailed off and we drifted off to sleep…

It makes perfect sense that I would eventually spend much of my life playing with words - whether through daily journaling, songwriting, singing and acting, or doing the work that financially and emotionally supported me for close to thirty years, as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, the birthplace of free association.

While I have straddled many disciplines, they all share common elements: deep listening, process oriented focus, use of one’s self as the instrument, and an endless curiosity about the human condition.

Originally trained as an actor (Southern Methodist University), highlights of those early years include working with Richard Kiley in a tour of A Christmas Carol, and playing leading roles in several musicals (My Fair Lady, The Fantasticks, Promenade, Anything Goes.) After a very long hiatus, in 2019, I performed in a film short of my spoken word poem, Chemo Crossroad, directed by Howard Sherman, which received several film festival recognitions. And in 2024 I returned to the stage in a one act play festival at The Vino Theater in Brooklyn in Veda Kumarjiguda’s play, Welcome to New York.

Songwriting and composing began in the winter of 2009, while I was undergoing chemotherapy treatments. I’d started taking voice lessons with Richard Armstrong, in hopes it would lift my spirts. It was through his gentle encouragement to sing in my own words, that a portal to an unknown potential suddenly and easily opened. Drawing upon years of singing in musicals and choirs, and childhood piano lessons, the music began to flow, and continued to grow with the help of great teachers along the way(Alexander Rovang and Christopher North). Musical works include song collections (Chemo Suite, Household Words, Paper Trail, Where You Least Expect Me), as well as choral and piano pieces, all of which have been performed in concerts in New York City. I also co-wrote a song with Dana Aber for her solo musical, Baggage at the Door, which had an Off-Broadway run at the AMT Theater in 2023.

My most recent project is an album, What Lies Within - a selection of twelve songs, chosen from the dozens I’ve written over the years. I collaborated with Vancouver musician, Marguerite Witvoet, to co-produce the album, which we recorded in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Through my training in social work (Columbia University), and psychoanalysis (Psychoanalytic Institute of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health), I served in community mental health settings, including working with people coming out of incarceration (Phoenix House), and offering affordable mental health services to people in the arts. (Institute for the Performing Arts, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health), in addition to private practice.

The greatest gift of my life has been the privilege of raising two children, JP and Eleanor.

As a walking enthusiast, I hope to one day make a long distance pilgrimage. In the meantime, I’ll be walking the streets of New York City, where I live.

Memberships include BMI and Actors Equity Association.