Dr. Patricia Martin has a Master’s degree and an Educational Specialist degree in School Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida where her main areas of research were motivation and neuropsychology. At USF she worked in a variety of academic and clinical settings: she taught courses in developmental psychology, psychopathology, and educational psychology, and supervised graduate students in therapy and psychological assessment of both children and adults.

She moved to Charlottesville to serve as director of the clinical training clinic in the combined School and Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Virginia. She now has her own private practice in Charlottesville, where she specializes in couples therapy and therapeutic parenting work.

Although she has found great satisfaction in all of her professional experiences, the relational paradigm emphasized in Imago Therapy has provided a new awareness and outlook for her entire therapy practice. She continues to move away from clinical diagnostic labels and is more involved in helping individuals identify the personal strengths that they can use to attain their goals and to build stronger, more fulfilling relationships.

“My approach to therapy is based on years of clinical experience, emerging research in interpersonal neurobiology, and my own personal development. I so enjoy my work with couples in various stages of relationship. And the parenting work is equally gratifying. While I have done family therapy work for years, the relational paradigm offers a compassionate, healing approach that allows parents to see more realistically their own abilities and those of their children. They already have the information within themselves; my role is to help them gently dismantle the barriers that keep them from seeing their true selves.”

Patricia and her husband of 37 years live in Charlottesville with their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.