Designing was such valuable training for the soul work I do now. Each one of us wants an inner life that is comfortable, beautiful and meaningful. We want to see how our lives are organized and unfold in ways that serve our purposes. Designing another's home taught me to let go of my own style. I was not going to be living in the home, so the style had to reflect the client - it had to work for them and their family. Counseling requires the same sensitivity and absence of personal agenda other than to serve what is unfolding. When I would start an interior design project, my clients would call me frequently needing all kinds of approval and support. As the relationship grew, and we worked together, instead of calling me up to see if it was okay if them hung a picture, they would call up and confidently share they had just bought a wonderful antique table or chair. This is how the relationship works with my counseling clients - from dependency to independence. It's great.

Couples
I also learned how to work with couples. Husband and wives don't often agree on the way a home should look or the investment of time and money in creating it. Because I understood both their concerns and encouraged them to express their taste and their needs, I never had difficulty with a spouse.

Midwifery and Counseling
I was pregnant with my first child and saw an interview on television with the director of the Birthing Center at Roosevelt Hospital in NYC. Even though I was living over an hour away, I decided that was the place for my child's birth. It was 1978 and most of my friends and family were alarmed that I was going to see midwives and not a doctor. The birth was great. Subsequently, I worked with a group of mothers in Princeton to start a birth center locally.

Midwives serve the mother and the process of birth. They are guardians of this sacred experience. They do not interfere nor do they impose; yet they are acutely attentive to any possible danger to the child or the mother. In working with clients, individuals, couples, families or groups, I see myself as midwife. My clients are giving birth to themselves - forming a new sense of self, shaping a new relationship, committing to a new future. Just like birth, the counseling process is hard work - often painful and filled with transitions. It is messy and - the outcome is a miracle.

Building a Waldorf School and Counseling
In 1985, I enrolled my children in the brand new Waldorf School of Princeton. Little did I know I was enrolling my self as a pioneer parent and that my life would change. I became a very active parent and the first development/fundraising officer. Not only did I find in Waldorf an understanding of the development of the human soul, but also the challenges of working with community. As development officer I had to deal with events, communications, and finances. I had to support the harmony of teachers, students, parents and a much larger community. I was asked to serve on a national task force for development for the Association of Waldorf School of North America. This required interfacing with Waldorf educators and the larger educational community.