Specializations

I specialize in helping people heal traumatic wounds, process anxiety, and identify personal or relational patterns that keep getting in the way of growth. Oftentimes, clients come to therapy because the anxiety becomes overwhelming, joy or passion feels hard to find, a relationship ruptures, or there is a shift in job, role, or identity.

 
Photo by Ida Jarosova/iStock / Getty Images

This list is not exhaustive, but the below contains common diagnoses or presenting concerns of people with whom I work:

  • Anxiety

  • Career concerns

  • Depression

  • Family Issues

  • Gender and Sexual Identity Development

  • Grief and loss

  • LGBTQ+ issues

  • Life transitions & adjustment 

  • Personal growth

  • Relationship Patterns

  • Self-Esteem

  • Stress, burnout, & compassion fatigue

  • Trauma recovery & healing

  • Women’s Issues

Approach to Therapy

Most people come to therapy due to one or more of the symptoms or concerns above. My role is first to identify and organize these symptoms and then understand their functional impact on you. Together, we will determine how best to address your symptoms  so you can find relief and re-engagement with your day-to-day life. I will also work to understand how these symptoms fit into the larger picture of your life context, as these symptoms are often the keys to understanding the patterns and emotions of what lies within at a deeper level. 

I work best with people who are not only interested in finding relief in the present moment, but are also interested in: unraveling the past, making meaning and sense of their experiences, and sifting through how you want to move forward in their life from a place of authenticity, personal responsibility, and self-compassion.

I use a therapeutic approach that combines relational, emotion-focused, and intersectional feminist theories. This combined lens helps me identify patterns in how you talk about your childhood, your family and friends, your work, and your goals. We will learn how your body, thoughts, and emotions impact your relationships with others and yourself and how you’ve been shaped until now.

This process also requires time, which is why I use a long-term therapy treatment model. This perspective provides time to unravel the past, identify key moments and relationships, and validate these experiences. It also gives space for finding a way to move forward from a place of greater understanding and insight, personal responsibility, and ongoing curiosity about who you really are. This approach allows us to truly get at the roots of issues and develop a new way of relating to yourself and others that is more authentic to who you are, rather than what has been at play in shaping your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. We might incorporate somatic cues and movements, images and symbols, and various forms of art, writing, and media to deepen your understanding of who you are and what you want in your life. I find that understanding the origins of reactions and responses, as well as addressing the symptoms, gives an opportunity for growth that is long-lasting and authentic to the individual, and this self-awareness can be applied across multiple parts of life.

Therapy for Therapists & Caring Professionals

If you have made a career out of caring for others, such as therapists, psychiatrists, physicians, physical and occupational therapists, and nurses, you know that those in helping professions often experience people pleasing tendencies and struggle to  prevent burnout, to name some common challenges. It can be so difficult to have knowledge about enacting change and fostering healing–while simultaneously feeling confused about how to apply this knowledge to yourself or ask for help in doing so. As someone in a helping profession, you’ve probably devoted years of your life to the service of helping others and your education, but perhaps now find yourself in a different kind of life and phase than when you started school. You may find the transition from student to professional to be challenging, as well as the ability to step away from your work to cultivate your personal life–especially while those around you seem to have things figured out and together. 

As someone in a caring profession, I have a special interest in creating space for other caring professionals  to be their human selves. I know that for many in these professions it can be tough to find a space where you’re not having to think 5 steps ahead, be “on” all the time, and feel safe to ask for help. I will work to create the space for you to be a full person with a full range of emotions, while also making time to process, gain insight, and enact the change you want in your life.

Diversity Statement

I seek to honor and affirm my clients’ diversity in all aspects of life and how their identities have been shaped by their unique experiences in the world as cultural beings. I recognize that cultural similarities and differences between my clients and myself may impact our therapeutic relationship, and I will strive to understand this impact with my clients. I am a therapist who affirms and values clients’ whole selves and specific identities, which include, but are not limited to race, socio-economic status, gender identity, gender expression, ability status, religious or spiritual beliefs or non-beliefs, sexual and romantic identities.