About therapy with me
I help adults from quarter-life to midlife better understand themselves—their patterns, pitfalls, identity, and values—in order to create meaningful changes in their lives. Our work together helps you find authenticity and connection within yourself, your career, and your relationships. Using evidence-based therapy techniques tailored to the individual, I work with a range of mental health conditions and issues, some of which include: depression, anxiety, self-esteem, ADHD, grief and loss, body image issues, and maintaining recovery from eating disorders and substance use. I also have a special interest in working with creatives—writers, artists, musicians, actors—and highly sensitive people (HSPs). In therapy with me, we explore how your life experiences have shaped who you are, and identify and work towards the changes you would like to make in order to live a more conscious and fulfilling life now.
About You
If any of the following resonate with you, we might be a good fit:
Feel stuck and know something has to change, and that a more meaningful life is possible, but are not sure where to begin.
You’re struggling with understanding who you are in the face of major life transitions, including (but not limited to): emergence into adulthood, career changes, marriage and children, break-ups and divorce, grief and loss, and your own sense of mortality.
You’re a high achiever but you’ve set your desires aside in order to live a life that’s been mapped out for you.
May be struggling with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, relationship challenges, compulsive behaviors, and/or executive functioning.
Have been told you’re sensitive.
Have been told you’re a perfectionist.
Feel “different” or like you’ve never really fit in.
Feel called to live more fully in alignment with your values in work and relationships, but are fearful about stepping into your potential.
Fear that you don’t deserve to feel better, make changes, or ask for what you need.
Worry that if you change and grow the people and causes you care about will suffer or you will end up alone.
Take care of others and have trouble caring for yourself, setting boundaries, and asking for help.
Find yourself repeating unhelpful patterns in relationships that prevent you from making fulfilling connections.
Find yourself turning to compulsive behaviors like compulsive exercise, binge eating, and anorexia & bulimia in order to manage difficult emotions.
Have trouble trusting yourself to make the right decisions.
Are you interested in exploring through sand play?
You’ve been living for a long time with the belief that you can manage everything on your own, but something is telling you that now is the time to reach out for help.
“It has been my therapeutic experience that most people, even those most accomplished outwardly, lack a core permission to live their lives: to feel what they feel, desire what they desire, and to pursue what their soul intends. Such permission cannot be granted by another; it must be seized by a person who decides that it is time to show up”
Services
I provide individual psychotherapy to adults. I offer a free 20-minute phone call before we meet in order to decide if we’re a good fit.
Sessions are available in-person and online. My office is located on a quiet, tree-lined street a 7-minute walk from the Dupont Circle metro station and a few blocks from the 42, 43, L2, and 16th Street S bus lines. Street parking is available but not ample.
Note that in order to attend virtual therapy with me you must be located in Washington, D.C., at the time of your session.
About Me
My Style. My work is rooted in the belief that people have the capacity for growth and change at any stage of life. I approach therapy primarily from a person-centered existential-humanistic perspective, which means that I help people discover their unique path and authentic life goals by developing greater self-awareness and insight, understanding their values and identity, questioning and taking action to identify and address self-imposed limitations, and making meaning out of some of life’s difficult feelings and events. I also believe that all humans have creative capacity and drive, whether that is expressed through raising family, your career, growing a garden, tending to a passion project, engaging in artistic expression, or some combination of these. I sometimes incorporate creative exploration in our work by engaging with the symbolic and intuitive world through dreamwork, sand tray, and other forms of creative expression in sessions, drawing on concepts based in Jungian psychology. I also frequently incorporate mindfulness practices, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical-behavioral therapy (DBT).
I am warm and genuine and I join in the emotional experiences of my clients. My style is strengths-based and relational. I encourage and participate in openness, spontaneity, and humor in the safety of the therapy room. I emphasize the importance of a non-judgmental environment and collaborative approach to establishing the goals of therapy, but I will also invite you to step outside of your comfort zone so that you can make the changes that you have come to therapy to make. I sometimes suggest “homework” between sessions, which might take the form of a self-care activity, meditation, a writing prompt, a dream journal, a creative endeavor, a reading, or an exploration of personal values and strengths. It is important to know that the work that happens in therapy extends beyond the weekly therapy hour.
My Background. I am a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in Washington, D.C., and a nationally certified counselor (NCC). Professional counselors are trained to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, and provide therapy, psycho-education, and skills training with a primarily wellness-centered rather than illness-centered approach. My professional experience includes working in community mental health, intensive outpatient eating disorder treatment, addiction treatment, and private practice in the following settings:
Rock Creek Therapy
The Body Image Therapy Center
Kolmac
Mary’s Center
I have received additional training and supervision in existential, psychodynamic, narrative, and Jungian approaches to psychotherapy. Recent trainings and workshops include:
Jungian Psychology in Clinical Practice 2023-2024 at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.
Human existence in life and psychotherapy at the Center for Existential Studies in Psychotherapy.
Four existential themes: Meaning and experience in expressive therapy at the Center for Culture and Sandplay.
Community dreamwork and active imagination at the Salome Institute for Jungian Studies.
2020-2021 fellowship at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
I completed a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at Marymount University and hold a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and fine art from Bryn Mawr College.
Prior to my career as a therapist, I had a 17-year career in museums and scholarly publishing. I am also the published translator of two books of poetry from Spanish to English. Additionally, I have completed many hours of training and practice in yoga and meditation, as well as in the use of sound and music as tools for healing.
In my spare time I enjoy music, reading, dancing, travel, and spending time with my rescue dog. I’m a D.C.-area native and long-time resident of D.C.
D.C. license number: PRC200001314