My style is earnest, flexible, and collaborative. Whether it's teaching you a practical coping strategy, helping you to connect to your feelings and thoughts, or making sense of something that seems confusing, my aim is to work alongside you, curiously exploring and offering new perspectives to your concerns.

An ideal patient would also value an emotion-based and interpersonal approach to treatment; few factors consistently predict effective treatment outcomes like the strong bond between your therapist and you. (Review of this research)

Psychotherapy can be helpful in redefining how you relate to others and yourself, and in identifying and nurturing your needs.

My treatment approach is integrative, person-centered, and evidence-based. It is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP).

My postgraduate training includes Cognitive Behavior Therapy (e.g., Exposure Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention) for panic, phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorder and Compassion Focused Therapy. I am also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)*, and offer this as an adjunctive treatment for traumatic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder. I have also completed years of doctoral level training, supervision, and coursework in psychodynamic psychotherapy (under Nancy McWilliams, PhD), a framework that allows me to more deeply appreciate the depths of my client’s pain and relationship patterns, both with themselves and with others.

  • Over the last 15 years, I’ve grown to appreciate the depth to which a person’s “health,” “recovery,” and “treatment” is multi-faceted, complex, and person-specific.

    Most treatment approaches have a similar aim — to live well, have positive relations, and effectively cope with difficult emotions and thoughts. Certain treatment approaches may inadvertently reduce a patient down to their symptoms (note: not my style). “You’re just an anxious person.”

    I see my clients as whole individuals who are dealing with specific psychological challenges. You are not your diagnosis. “You’re a person who is coping with anxiety.” It’s a subtle, but necessary, shift in tone; that we are all more than the things we have to face.

  • “Can we just…

    slow down…

    and notice…

    what is happening…

    in your body…

    in this moment?”

    Therapy is an experience between a client and therapist. You express a need, I hear it and respond, and you receive that. A lot happens in between the words. Just as anxiety is represented by more than our anxious thoughts; shifts in what’s said, a particular facial expression, a noticeable gut reaction…

    An experiential therapy focuses on the moment. Magnifies this moment. And works to resolve what is happening in the moment.

    I encourage clients, in a variety of ways, to “slow down” and “make space” for their emotions. It’s important to me that my clients and I are able to attend to their selves in the moment — and tune into how their emotions reside in their bodies… as a starting point for better managing emotions and becoming more attuned to oneself.

  • By now, it should be clear that I see my patients as more than the symptoms they share with me. We all have a multitude of parts that makes us a person — identities, beliefs, values, and relationships — that are likely to be relevant to any issues you are experiencing. As I get to know my patients, I am getting to know these parts of them. And they may also be getting to know these parts of themselves too.

    Cultural humility is defined as the “desire and ability to maintain an other-oriented interpersonal stance in relation to features of cultural identity that are important to others.” (Hook et al., 2013) It demands an awareness of one’s privileges, biases, and values.

    I strive to be aware of the parts that make up my identity and history. As a therapist, it’s important for me to acknowledge my biases and not assume that I have an understanding of your life or your experiences.

  • As you’re likely aware, clinical psychology is a science, and the components of psychotherapy have been studied for many decades.