All about me (as a therapist)

How I work: 

My work with adults focuses on reducing anxiety, improving mood, and helping clients find their voice and purpose in life. I help clients become unstuck creatively. And I help clients strengthen and enrich their relationships, starting with the relationship they have with themselves.

I develop a treatment plan that includes specific goals, which I discuss with my clients. Then I periodically check in to make sure we're still on the right track. Sometimes clients change their goals as their life changes. Sometimes it feels like we're at an impasse and progress has slowed down, and this is an opportunity to collaborate about my client’s treatment plan. Together, we can figure out what obstacles are in the way and how to remove them or correct course.

The mental health conditions I treat the most often: 

Unrealized dreams, unexpressed creativity, climate grief, a politically polarized country... there are plenty of reasons why a someone might seek help for depression symptoms. My holistic approach to treating depression includes practical lifestyle changes and relationship building, along with some combination of therapeutic approaches to address root causes. Often, depression stems from core beliefs that were established in childhood but are no longer helpful.

Anxiety can look like many things, including perfectionism, a relentless inner critic, or an irrational worry. Many of my clients who come to therapy for anxiety relief catastrophize in wildly imaginative but painful ways. Others are anxious because they've suppressed their feelings for so long that they're bursting out of them in the form of physical ailments or addictive behaviors. It is possible to gain control over one's anxious thoughts, even those that play all day long like a radio with the volume turned down low. My treatment approach is results-driven and evidence-based to helps clients calm themselves.

What I love about being a therapist: 

The first time that it's clear that a client trusts me is enormously gratifying. It's a privilege to hold space for other people's pain and witness their triumphs. It's a joy to collaborate with my clients on their treatment plan and then witness them improve.

What I’ve learned as a therapist: 

One valuable lesson I’ve have learned about therapy is that the greatest predictors of success are a client’s unwavering consistency - that is the willingness to show up every week, whether they feel like it or not, with an openness to see what unfolds. Also the willingness to process the content of our work together between our sessions, with journaling or some form of creative expression.

What I stand for:

I value creative expression, self-compassion, enriching relationships, and developing community. I stand for inclusivity, equity, and creating a shame-free space.

What my clients need to know about working with me: 

I’m interested in your past, insofar as it helps to illuminate how you can improve your life in the present. Our counseling work will uncover unconscious material that provides a deeper understanding of who you are and why you make the choices you make. By uncovering unconscious material, we‘re able to change old patterns, discover our authentic self, and find wholeness and integration.

My goal is for you to no longer need to keep coming to therapy.