How I Work:
Focusing on the individual and their unique capability toward healing is the guiding approach I take in therapy. I work with great curiosity to explore the distractions and negative cycles that may be keeping you stuck. The struggle for clarity is a difficult one to navigate in isolation; together we can look at patterns and behaviors that no longer service you and gently work toward a new, more expansive pathway. The therapeutic process is one of finding balance between the emotional and rational, the mind, body and spirit then bringing that forward into our lives. Bringing meaning and integration to mind, body and spirit is the philosophy I hold in the practice of therapy.
Specialty Treatment Areas:
- Substance Abuse & Addiction
- Trauma Work
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety/ Panic Attacks
- Depression
- Somatic/Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
- ADD/ ADHD
- Self-Harm
- Suicidal Ideation
- Anger Management
- Impulse Control
- Adolescent Challenges
- Transitioning Young Adult Challenges
- Executive Functioning Issues
- Jungian Analysis
- Emotional Regulation Issues
- Family Work
Individual Holistic Psychotherapy:
It seems to me that in order for real change and healing to occur, the mind, body, spirit and brain must all be incorporated into the therapeutic process. Each of our stories is unique and there is no “one-size-fits-all” treatment.
Together we can work on:
- Identifying triggers that put you into a survival state (fight/flight/freeze/collapse), which can contribute to self-defeating patterns.
- Exploring your relationship to your family of origin.
- Learning your attachment style and revitalizing your relationships.
- Developing compassion for all parts of yourself.
- Creating resources to help calm your nervous system.
- Loosening the grip of chronic self-judgment.
- Healing addictive and reactive patterns.
- Building mindfulness techniques to help you feel more grounded and present.
Family Work:
Families can benefit from therapy when they experience any stressful event that may strain family relationships, such as financial hardship, divorce, or the death of a loved one. In addition, it can be effective in treating mental health concerns that impact the family as a whole, such as depression, substance abuse, chronic illness, and food issues, or everyday concerns, like communication problems, interpersonal conflict, or behavioral problems in children and adolescents.
I work with families in an Emotionally-Focused framework, based on the work of Sue Johnson. This approach works from an attachment-based lens to help understand problematic cycles that trigger and maintain issues in the family. It then works to build interactions that that establish safer connection and a calmer, more regulated atmosphere among individuals and in the family system.
Together we can work on:
- Building skills for more emotional regulation and a better sense of feeling grounded.
- Dismantling reactive negative cycles by establishing a more secure base of attachment.
- Studying the blocks that arise in connection and support.
- Creating an alliance through effective communication, emotional safety and bonding.
Trauma Informed Therapy/ Sensorimotor Psychotherapy:
Dr. Gabor Mate defines trauma as, “a psychic wound that hardens you psychologically that then interferes with your ability to grow and develop. It pains you and then you act out of the pain. It induces fear and then you are acting out of that fear. Trauma is not what happens to you, it’s what happens inside of you as a result of what happened to you.”
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a complete therapeutic modality for trauma and attachment issues. SP welcomes the body as an integral source of information which can guide resourcing and the accessing and processing of challenging, traumatic, and developmental experience. SP is a holistic approach that includes somatic, emotional, and cognitive processing and integration.
SP enables clients to discover and change habitual physical and psychological patterns that impede optimal functioning and well-being. SP is helpful in working with dysregulated activation and other effects of trauma, as well as the limiting belief systems of developmental issues.
SP helps clients cultivate their strengths, while providing enough challenge to stimulate growth, long lasting change, and well-being.
Together we can work on:
- Validating your past hurts and traumas
- Working though internalized feelings of shame and confusion
- Identifying and understanding the everyday triggers that put you into a state of fight/flight/freeze/collapse.
- Healing addictive and reactive patterns
- Understanding how to process and release traumatic memories and emotions held in the body
- Creating resources to calm the nervous system and help deal with trauma-related symptoms
- Alleviating the suffering from emotions like fear, shame and anger
About Me:
Since graduating from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2015, I have been cultivating my therapeutic practices in and out of agencies. I have worked in a transitional program for young adults, AIM House, going on 6 years. The program is structured to help guide young people on garnering enough ego strength to forge a path of independence, while also staying connected and building community. I also worked with their families in assisting with the individuation process through parent coaching and extensive family systems work through an attachment-focused lens. I have been in private practice for going on 7 years. My practice encompasses work with individuals, couples and families and has included a variety of age ranges. In meeting with such an array of unique individuals and tailoring to what they need along the way, I have deepened greatly into various aspects of psychology.
