Welcome to my practice!

People begin therapy for a multitude of reasons. If you are struggling with something, then you have taken an important first step by investigating how therapy might help you.

My approach to mental wellness centers around three important tasks:

Function, Meaning, and Integration

Labels and diagnoses are helpful in providing a way for us to describe and give framework to our problems. However, human beings are complex. We typically don’t fit neatly into categories and sometimes we need help sorting through the root causes of our distress in order to make lasting changes. That is where I come in.

I believe that mental health symptoms are often manifestations of deeper concerns and that they deserve to be approached and treated in a holistic and individualized way.

I can help you address Function in your life by looking at places where unhelpful thoughts and behaviors have thwarted your day-to-day ability to feel joy, agency, or to simply relax. You may identify self-limiting beliefs based on stories that you learned somewhere along the way about who you are and where your worth comes from. I use evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques, mindfulness of thoughts, emotions, and body, and realistic goal-setting around self-care practices to help you begin to live more peacefully with yourself. This work can be profound and sets the stage for lasting change.

I believe that Meaning is central to all aspects of our lives, starting from the moment we become aware of ourselves as individuals. Addressing personal meaning-making and understanding our core values is critical in order to feel whole. Shifts that take place through therapy look different for everyone: they may be sudden and big or they may be more subtle and take place over time, or some combination of both. Sometimes this process can conflict with values modeled or instilled in us early on. My role is to help get you to a point where meaning-making is possible and to guide and support you through feelings of ambivalence or unease that may arise as a result.

Simply put, Integration occurs when our insides match our outsides. This means that the way we show up in the world, what we do for a living, how we relate and communicate to others, who we enter into relationships with, and how we treat ourselves supports our sense of self-worth and meaning and exists in harmony with our values and how we view the world around us.

I help adults with the following:

Depression, anxiety, perfectionism, life & career transitions, relationship & sexual issues, body image concerns, self-esteem, and creative stagnation.

My Approach

My approach is customized to each individual, depending on that person’s needs and treatment goals. Individuals in therapy with me can expect in-depth work and enhanced insight into conscious and unconscious processes. I work from both an existential-humanist orientation and psychodynamic theoretical lens because I believe in first creating a safe space for therapy to happen via a genuine and warm therapeutic relationship. From there we may safely examine the processes and events that affect our lives in the present and explore ways of integrating the whole of our experience with the core of our being in order to lead a richer, more meaningful and fulfilling life that is aligned with our needs, wants, strengths, and values. I believe this work can lead to fundamental and lasting changes.

I also have experience in and frequently draw on techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), mindfulness, expressive arts, and mind-body trauma interventions including sensorimotor therapy. I strive to create a trauma-informed experience for clients in every aspect of treatment.The first few sessions involve you and I working collaboratively to identify how counseling can be helpful to you. I offer a warm, genuine, and empathic presence and strive to create an atmosphere of safety and trust, a container in which together we can work to help you understand the root causes of your dilemma and find ways to alleviate the discomfort these cause in your life.

 Therapy looks different for each individual. Therapy is finished when you feel like you’ve gotten what you need. This could be a few weeks, months, or perhaps years after your first session. Sometimes people come back to therapy in a few months or a few years after saying goodbye, depending on their needs. To the best of my ability, my door remains open for returning clients.