Our Counselor Bios

Sevin Philips, MFT
Sevin is the founder of the Relationship Counseling Center and a licensed marriage and family therapist. He holds a master’s degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Sevin is best known for his down-to-earth approach to helping people move into more loving and authentic relationships. He has conducted workshops, published numerous online videos and articles about relationships, and hosted the talk radio show Ask the Therapist.

Jeff Wright, MFT
Jeff helps couples and individuals who seek to envision, create, and enjoy full, well-lived lives. For 13 years he has offered a safe, supportive, results-oriented environment for those interested in walking a path of healing, transformation, and service.

Jeff is the cofounder of the San Francisco Divorce Group, where he worked collaboratively for five years to help individuals reclaim and recreate their lives after divorce. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Marina Counseling Center. Jeff holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

Jane Reingold, MFT
Jane is passionate about helping individuals and couples deepen their connection, creativity, and honesty while fostering their ability to self-reflect and live authentically in a relationship. Her style is approachable and relatable. She offers support that is empathic, practical, and effective.

As a licensed marriage and family therapist, Jane has worked extensively with heterosexual and LGBTQ couples in private practice settings, helping clients in areas including sexual issues, interracial relationships, divorce, life transitions, infidelity, parental conflicts, creative blocks, domestic violence, and conflict resolution. Her training includes individual, couple, adolescent, family, and group work at the Marina Counseling Center and the Integral Counseling Center. Jane is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) and holds a master’s degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco.

Sara Bingaman, MFT
Sara loves helping couples find their unique paths and rhythms by facilitating the hearing, understanding, and knowing of each other. Whether helping a couple move through general “stuckness” and relationship dissatisfaction, infidelity, money issues, struggles around sex, challenges brought on by the addition of a new baby or differences in parenting styles, or facilitating difficult conversations, she aims to help each partner express his or her experiences and be heard and understood by the other. Sara will also teach you simple tools to use outside of session. She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychotherapy from JFK University. Sara is the cofounder of the San Francisco Divorce Group.

When she is not working, Sara may be found in her garden, hiking, playing and being silly with her son, or being inspired by great poetry.

Lorraine Platt, MFT
Lorraine is a licensed marriage and family therapist dedicated to helping couples create a fulfilling partnership that inspires their greatest potential. For 15 years, she has counseled couples on how to build a deep and lasting connection while supporting their individual growth. In 2004, she cofounded the psychotherapy practice Passion & Purpose with her husband, Richard. Together, they have led seminars and couples workshops in which they share the secrets of a successful marriage.

Lorraine has been a guest speaker on the talk radio show Ask the Therapist and is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) and Marin CAMFT. Lorraine holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She is experienced in helping couples address addictions, codependency, money, sex, intimacy, spirituality, and transitions. With her compassionate understanding of relational issues, Lorraine provides the guidance couples need to create lasting intimacy. 

Eric FitzMedrud, Ph.D.
Eric is a licensed psychologist with a deep love of therapeutic work serving relationships. His approach begins with fostering hope and continues with helping individuals maintain their integrity, ask for their needs to be met, and be generous with their partner. His work helps people decrease conflict, maintain connection, and begin to develop a fulfilling relationship. Eric’s approach to sexual challenges is nonjudgmental, playful, and knowledgeable, helping each person feel comfortable finding his or her own healthy, sustainable form of sexual expression. Eric has worked with people across many stages of the relationship cycle, including unmarried couples, couples that are pregnant, new parents, parents of teens, empty nesters, and those entering their golden years. He welcomes people and couples all across the rainbow, including LGBTQQI.

Outside of his clinical practice, Eric works as a supervisor of therapist interns and as a professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He teaches, among other courses, Human Sexuality and Diversity Issues in Clinical Practice.

Ben Ringler, MFT
Ben has helped many couples find relief from relationship issues including poor communication, infidelity, intimacy and closeness, codependency, sexual intimacy, and cross-cultural issues. His style is warm, receptive, and direct, helping people reach their true relationship potential through a step-by-step approach. His goal as a relationship counselor is to help people have sustaining and satisfying relationships.

Ben is passionate about life, self-inquiry, and growth. In addition to his work as a licensed psychotherapist, he is a certified Hakomi therapist; he draws on his rich and diverse training and experience to help individuals and couples struggling with relationship issues. He holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the California Institute for Integral Studies.

Anmarie Hegarty, MFT
Anmarie is a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in relationship issues. She works with couples that are having difficulties and need to get unstuck, as well as helping couples to make good relationships even better. Anmarie assists couples in developing positive relationship attributes such as communication skills, trust, honor and respect for differences, mindfulness of each other’s emotional needs, intimacy, healthy individuality within the relationship, enjoyment of each other’s company, and shared meaning and purpose. As a couples therapist, she treats both men and women with empathy and fairness and assists them in communicating in a safe and effective manner. Some couples benefit from learning tools or homework outside of session. Each couples session is tailored to the particular needs of the relationship.

Erin Kuntze, Psy.D
Erin has a comprehensive background and schooling, yet she presents herself as a real person. Both male and female clients find her extremely approachable. Erin received both a master’s degree and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She practices in our Santa Monica office and specializes in relationships and couples work.

When it comes to helping couples communicate better, Erin coaches her clients on ways to be direct and loving, even when the instinct is to react and defend. For couples who struggle when it comes to talking about sex, Erin has the experience to guide them into talking more comfortably about sexual needs and how to support a happy sex life in a long-term relationship. She is also known for her experience working with multicultural and LGBTQQI relationships.

As couples talk about issues in their relationship, Erin has an uncanny ability to see beyond the surface and get to the heart of the matter. It is this ability that makes her an excellent relationship therapist.

Shaney Watters, MFT
Shaney Watters is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) who has been working in the mental health field with individuals, couples and groups since 1997. She believes strongly in respect and collaboration in the therapy relationship, as in all relationships. Shaney’s therapeutic approach includes creating a welcoming space in which clients and therapist can together explore ways to pursue healing and wholeness in relationships with others as well as one’s self.

Within the safe and non judgmental environment the focus will be to examine what is working as well as what is not, in order to identify and build the practice of desired change. The goal of the time together will be to incorporate conflict management skills, opening to alternate perspectives, all the while building meaning, respect, joy, and hope for the future. Every day she feels honored to get to do this work and looks forward to assisting you on your journey.

Rosette Schapira, MFT
Rosette Schapira is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in relationship counseling. Clients immediately feel an ease while working with Rosette. Rosette views the relationship, not either individual as her client. Her focus is to help people feel alive and fully inspired. She helps couples and families achieve a deep connection from a place of balance, wholeness and compassion. Trained in mediation and conflict resolution, Rosette has a way of helping couples express their resentments that have built up over time and making the process easier for both parties.

Jaydee Tumambing Hughes, MFT

Jaydee is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a collaborative, and facilitative approach with couples and individuals. She believes that by the time couples and individuals come into therapy, they have tried to work through issues and may feel stuck and extremely frustrated. Jaydee strives to assist clients in discovering unhealthy patterns and ongoing themes in their lives that may be brought into their different relationships and choices. In session, verbal and non-verbal communication patterns that may be unfamiliar or unseen to clients, and are problematic are explored and addressed. There are expectations and day-to-day stressors that most clients are unprepared for, whether by themselves or with partners. Discovering ways to “tackle” issues can lead clients to more enjoyable lives.

Jaydee takes on a multicultural and integrative approach, sensitive to the similarities and differences of individuals, with emphasis on creating a safe, therapeutic environment.

Samira Kester, MFT
Samira has an innate ability to hear what is in the hearts of the individuals, couples, and families with which she works. Her approach naturally lends itself to creating an atmosphere of comfort, safety, and healing. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, she is dedicated to helping others find new ways of living in the world that will relieve their pain and bring about a greater sense of peace and joy.

While she is well versed in treating a wide range of relationship issues, Samira especially enjoys guiding couples in effectively moving away from their distress, toward repair and reconnection. She believes that strong, loving emotional bonds empower us to thrive in life.

Samira holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology. You can visit her in our University Heights office in San Diego.

Ina Beller, LCSW
Ina demonstrates compassion and a sense of humor in meeting her clients’ needs. She takes great pride in assessing relationship issues and planning treatment accordingly. Ina works on enhancing joy in relationships and achieving positive communication, and she helps couples increase positive actions toward each other. She also emphasizes action-oriented, solution-driven ideas that assist people in moving along in the process of positive change. She has experience working with addictive and codependent couples.

Ina is a licensed clinical social worker and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers, and she has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has 21 years of experience in the counseling field and has been in private practice for 16 years, counseling couples, individuals, and groups and assisting people in reaching their highest potential. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and has taught as adjunct faculty at several colleges and universities throughout the Chicago area.

Jamie Eisenberg, LCSW
Jamie is a licensed clinical social worker committed to helping her clients identify and express their authentic selves, which allows them to establish and sustain genuine and meaningful connections with others. She believes that as clients become mindful of their unique thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences, they are more able to honor their own individuality and function within relationships in healthy ways. Jamie’s approach is empathic, accepting, and relational, utilizing her clients’ existing strengths to help them reach their individual and relational goals.
Jamie has helped individuals, couples, and families cope with depression, anxiety, relationship issues, parenting struggles, loss, and life transitions, enabling them to better manage the staggering complexities that exist within their lives and relationships, as well as find joy in the process of living. Jamie holds a master’s degree in clinical social work from the University of Chicago and has additional specialized training in working with LGBTQ-identified individuals.

Amy Morgan, LCSW
Amy has the natural ability to make clients feel at ease in her therapy practice. Her nonjudgmental approach entails working toward understanding one’s experiences and how they have impacted one’s marriage or relationships—whether that relationship is with oneself or one’s child, friend, or partner. In her couples work, Amy assists couples in improving trust, strengthening loving boundaries, and enhancing communication so that they feel heard and understood. In addition to working with individuals and couples to improve their relationships, Amy is passionate about working with couples on parenting issues. Being a parent is a complex job, and parents often draw on their own experiences as children. Finding one’s voice as a parent is an important part of the parenting journey.

Amy’s relationship-based training includes a master’s degree in social work as well as a master’s degree in child development. This training gives Amy the unique ability to view relationships on a continuum and to treat each couple’s relationship with the attention and care it deserves.

Sam Glyod, LMHC
Sam has over 25 years of training and experience working with individuals, couples and groups. Sam believes it’s in relationships that we learn the most about ourselves. What we discover isn’t always pretty but a necessary beginning of real change. Relationships often are the cause of much suffering and anguish.

What ever happened to the fun and laughter, the passion and blissful romance you once enjoyed? Sam offers a therapeutic relationship of safety and trust that will allow you to find answers and make the desired changes. He listens carefully to what is being said and what you are not yet able to put into words and then offers a new way of seeing things. The result will be improved communication, deepening respect, new hope, less distress and more joy.

Meg Batterson, LCSW
Meg creates a comfortable environment for couples and individuals. Her direct approach to engaging couples makes her a valuable advocate for improving relationships. She provides practical relationship tools for both couples and individuals, helping them change their behaviors for the better. In the safety of her office, Meg collaborates with couples, supporting them as they get to know each other in new and creative ways that can bring aliveness back into their relationships. Although disagreement is healthy in relationships, Meg can assist people in resolving their differences, or at least in learning to live with them in a positive way.

Meg holds a master of science in social work from Columbia University and a certificate of completion in relationally based trainings from The Relational Center in Los Angeles, and she is licensed as an LCSW with the New York State Office of the Professions. Special areas of focus include communication issues, emotionally disconnected partners, and helping people find a balance between dealing with hard-to-talk-about issues and bringing the joy back into their relationships.

Dan Weiss, LCSW
Dan has been doing clinical work for over 20 years and brings a down to earth style that combined with his experience working with children, adolescents, families, individuals, and couples, contributes to his unique ability to connect with and help resolve those issues that have brought you to therapy. Dan is fairly informal and fosters a conversational style of working, while also offering concrete techniques to help with challenges of communication and broadening perspective on the problems of the relationship. Dan encourages a focus on the things that brought each couple together to begin with and tries to help rekindle those, while also helping unravel the knots that have hindered along the way.

Dan earned his Master’s in Social Work from Hunter College in 1993 and has received numerous trainings since then. He is currently a registered LCSW with the state of New York. He feels that communication is the key to many problems with couples, and enjoys helping partners learn new techniques for speaking to each other that enable them to then work on settling larger issues that face many couples, from money, parenting, sex or mutual respect. Dan is used to dealing with many difficult issues and difficult people, and feels comfortable facing whatever challenge you may present.

Christine Greer O’Connor, Ph.D. & LICSW
Christine’s counseling practice and doctoral research are dedicated to helping clients cope with life transitions. Couples often report increased conflict, miscommunication, and decreased intimacy during times of transition. Christine has worked with many couples to help resolve conflict and improve understanding and intimacy during challenging times. Having lived in Spain and Costa Rica and traveled extensively in five continents, Christine is fluent in Spanish, and she has expertise working with international clients. She has a successful multicultural private practice and welcomes all lifestyles.

Christine received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Haverford College and a master of science in social work from Columbia University, and she received postgraduate clinical training from the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. She has a her Ph.D. in clinical social work from New York University and has presented her doctoral research at numerous national conferences and in research journals. Christine is licensed in the District of Columbia, New York, and South Carolina.

Kimberly O’brien, LMHC
Kim is a licensed mental health counselor who takes a compassionate and collaborative approach in her work with individuals and couples. She has been working as a relationship counselor for over 11 years and has developed a keen ability to help people understand relationship dynamics and offer simple and constructive methods for healthy communication.

Kim’s straightforward approach speaks to both men and women. She has helped many couples deal with relationship issues including intimacy and closeness, sexual intimacy, lack of communication, infidelity, and cross-cultural issues. Her style is not only warm and receptive but also directive, helping couples and individuals reach their full potential in an efficient manner. Her goal as a relationship counselor is to help couples transform disharmony in their relationship into deeper connections and fulfillment.

Nancy Case, LMHC
Nancy draws on a combination of knowledge, empathy and insight as she helps her clients create lasting, positive change. She works individuals and couples who wish to increase self-awareness, set and achieve goals and live life more fully. Nancy understands the challenges and rewards of being in a relationship and she has helped many couples strengthen trust, deepen intimacy and improve communication. Nancy often brings humor and creativity into the therapy process and has been described by clients as caring, approachable and insightful. Nancy holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is a licensed mental health counselor associate. Nancy’s office is located in beautiful Downtown Seattle.

Annette Donaghy, LPC
Annette is a licensed professional counselor who has practiced in the Colorado area since 1984. She has offices in both our Boulder and Denver locations. What sets her apart is an uncanny ability to see beyond the day-to-day disagreements and get to the heart of a matter. After helping couples reach a place of understanding, she often suggests homework to help them learn how to be different at home. Annette has worked as a family therapist for wilderness therapy programs for troubled teens and their families. Her approach to counseling embodies compassion, a sense of humor, and fearlessness in facing difficult relationship issues.

Thad Cox, LPC
Thad is a professional counselor in the state of Texas with nine years of professional experience. A graduate of Austin College, he earned his master’s degree from the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Viewing intimate partnership as one of the most personally challenging and rewarding dimensions of adult life, Thad takes great interest in working with couples and individuals who are struggling with their relationships. In therapy sessions, he develops an understanding of how each person is experiencing the relationship and facilitates the mutual sharing of this experience between partners on both the rational and emotional levels, offering unique suggestions for how to work out old patterns of behavior. At times, this transformation may be facilitated by inviting partners to explore in depth the older issues that hold them back through individual sessions. Using this comprehensive approach to personal and relational healing, Thad will help guide you and your partner in developing the insight and learning the skills to create change at home, where it really counts. Thad has a warm and natural presence that puts people at ease from the very first session, and he is comfortable and experienced working with couples of any sexual orientation.