My Bio

Marilyn was born in rural Pennsylvania, and grew up in Brooklyn, NY. When she was 21, she married and moved to North Carolina. where she taught school for three years. A few years later, she moved to Mexico City with her husband and two children and lived there for eight years.  As a result she is now bi-lingual. During that time, She had another teaching job when one of the teachers quit when her husband won the Nobel Prize.

Eventually, they moved back to North Carolina, and sometime later went through a difficult divorce. During the divorce, Mariln attended a support group, which helped her cope with the stress and trauma of the ordeal. A year later, Marilyn became the facilitator of that group. Over the next four years more than two hundred women participated in the group, some for a few weeks, some for as long as a few years. There were tears and there was laughter, but the women left stronger, wiser, and brave enough to deal with whatever life had in store for them.

sedona_marilyn.jpgIn 1990,  Marilyn moved to Arizona, where she exhibited and sold watercolors in the Scottsdale Celebration of Fine Art. Eventually, she decided to go back to school, earned a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology, and continued on to receive a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Marriage and Family Counseling.

Marilyn wrote “The Relationship Trap” as a result of a graduate school research project. It began as a collection of case studies and evolved into a book over the course of several years. These women’s stories were selected from the case studies. Often she heard, “Oh, do I have a story for you!”  Her next book was “When Angels Call Your Name.”

       Educational Background

  • Ottawa University, Master of Arts in Psychological Counseling with an Advanced Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling
  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina. Graduate studies in Counseling Psychology.
  • Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina. Graduate studies in Education
  • Hunter College, New York, New York. Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education. Double major: Fine Arts; Early Childhood Education.