I have never been interested in the average. The people I work with aren’t either.

Where the work started

Philosophy gave me discipline, structure, and a way to communicate through ideas — something largely foreign to my blue-collar upbringing in Trenton. I was the first person in my father’s family to finish high school, so education was never abstract for me. It was a way into language, discipline, and possibility.

A brief detour through corporate America made one thing clear: the pursuit of money was not my driver. After work, I took off the suit and went to the gym to train people at night. Coaching felt closer to the truth. It was teaching, but more personal. Corporate life gave me clarity: the questions that mattered to me lived somewhere else.

Why the body came first

Staying only in the mind did not get me close enough. The body was carrying answers the intellect could not reach.

Graduate study in applied physiology at Columbia University, continued at Long Island University, deepened the grounding. I became a strength and conditioning coach and certified exercise physiologist, watching how the body carried stress, fatigue, and pressure. The limiting factor was rarely only physical.

Where performance became real

That observation led me to Temple University and doctoral work in sport and exercise psychology under Dr. Michael Sachs, one of the first researchers to study altered states of consciousness in athletes, including what became known as runner’s high.

Four seasons as Director of Mental Performance with the Washington Nationals brought the consequence. Elite athletes, real pressure, real stakes, and the growing recognition that even the highest performers carry patterns that no amount of skill development can reach.

Why clinical depth mattered

Clinical training came in fits and starts over time, beginning at Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School and completing, years later, at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis in New Jersey. I pursued it not because I abandoned performance work, but because I refused to keep referring people out. I wanted to treat the entire human condition.

Dysfunction does not disappear at the elite level. It just wears a different uniform.

I have never stopped working with individuals. Always with real consequence. Skin in the game. The integration of philosophy, physiology, performance psychology, and psychoanalytic depth is not a curriculum. It is what twenty years of working with people under pressure produced.

I care about the person behind the performance. The person is always in the work. Pressure does not simply test skill. It tests structure, identity, history, and the ways someone has learned to survive success.

Twenty Years

Over twenty years, I have worked with All-Stars, World Series champions, elite international athletes, and high-performing professionals across sport, business, law, medicine, and leadership. I spent four seasons as Director of Mental Performance with the Washington Nationals.

My individual work spans more than fifteen sports — from Olympic and professional athletes to surgeons, trial attorneys, founders, and senior executives. I have consulted and presented for household-name organizations across finance, law, media, and technology, including Sony and the United Nations.

The clients are private. The work always carries real consequence.

Current clinical practice in New York through Union Square Practice and in New Jersey through the New Jersey Consultation Center (NJCC).

Teaching

Co-leading a weekly Neuropsychoanalysis course at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis — NJ, working with a cohort of advanced clinical candidates at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and affective neuroscience.

Co-teaching Applied Sport & Performance Psychology for Therapists with Dr. Tim Herzog, Ph.D. — an APA-approved continuing education course for licensed clinicians seeking to work with athletes and high-performance populations.

Previously served as adjunct faculty in the Departments of Psychology and Exercise Science at St. Joseph’s University (formerly the University of the Sciences) and Georgian Court University.

How I Work

I listen for what repeats before I listen for what is wrong.

I look at physiology before assuming the issue is psychological.

I treat symptoms as information, not defects.

I work directly, but carefully — and with the understanding that how you relate in the room is often part of the same pattern that brings you there.

Credentials & Education