Austin, Texas! Moved here in the spring of 2007. Quite to my surprise, since I knew almost nothing about Texas, I find I've taken to it like a duck to water. The weather's great (spring is heavenly and summer heat just means lots of great swimming). The food's great - breakfast tacos! Austin's tag line as the "Live Music Capital of the World" isn't just some booster hype - great live music really is everywhere. The people are friendly, to the point that they seem to take it upon themselves to make sure you're doing fine. I'm not moving again any time soon.
Consulting. I started Ducks-In-A-Row Organizing Consultants back in 1997, in Madison, Wisconsin. That was before anyone in the Midwest knew what professional organizing was, long before it came to mean closets and garages. Also before "compulsive hoarding" was recognized as a psychological syndrome. The ducks had a mind of their own, though, and chasing after them took me in two different directions – productivity consulting for professionals (at work) and psychological treatment for people struggling with overshopping and clutter (at home, at work, in the car, wherever). The two aren't as different as you might think - both require decisions about what to hold onto and what to let go of.
Compulsive acquiring and hoarding. I had the good fortune to get my training in psychology, in the mid-'80s, at the most excellent psychology department at the University of Wisconsin. Nevertheless, when a client later invited me to see her cluttered home I didn't know what I was seeing. I was able to help her, though, by doing what "made sense" to me because of my training as a cognitive-behavioral therapist. It was largely that successful experience that prompted me to start Ducks-In-A-Row, a business that could offer on-site help and a wide range of other services.
Some years later, at a conference of the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation, I met two researchers, Randy Frost and Gail Steketee, who had also been applying cognitive-behavioral approaches to help people with hoarding habits. They went on to receive the first federal grant to study the problem and to conduct excellent groundbreaking research. I highly recommend their self-help book and their therapist manual and client workbook, published in 2007, as well as OCF's website and conferences.
I'm now working at the Austin Center for the Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the only treatment center in Texas specializing exclusively in OCD and OCD spectrum disorders, as their specialist in compulsive acquiring and hoarding.
Writing. It's been seven years already since we wrote Managing Multiple Projects (McGraw-Hill 2002). Michael Tobis, my husband, is at UT now, but we still write together sometimes. One of our better efforts recently came out of me trying to wrap my head around the numbers he deals with in modeling climate on this planet. As for me, I'm feeling pent-up things to say about this bizarre culture of material abundance and spiritual hunger. But for now I'm really still just settling into Texas.
Photography. I got my first digital camera so I could more easily document clutter in my clients' homes and offices, mostly so I could train my staff and colleagues. I didn't get into photography as an art form until I started helping my mother get her photos up on the web a couple of years ago. My most creative effort to date is a little "documentary fumetti" (a comic book story but with photos instead of drawings). I'm quite pleased with it, so let me know what you think!
Photo-activism. As new member of Texas Documentary Photographers I'm starting to explore how images can help people see things differently, and perhaps even to make good changes. I'm very proud that my first photo to be accepted for an exhibit was for the Heart Gallery of Texas, a wonderful project that connects kids up for adoption with their parents-to-be. I also proposed a new project, the Texas Water Story, and I hope to start working on that in the coming year.
I started a photoblog as a way of keeping up with far-flung friends and family. My professional websites aren't up to date yet and might not be for a while yet - this page is just to tide me over. If you've been looking for me, please feel free to get in touch, and let me know what you're up to!
