Therapy together

My approach is tailored to each client and rooted in evidence-based practice, primarily experiential dynamic psychotherapies (ISTDP, AEDP) and mindfulness-based interventions. I offer a nonjudgmental, trauma-informed space that is honest and compassionately challenging. With unconditional respect for each client, I listen deeply from a psychodynamic perspective. That is, I hear not only content, but attend to how things are said, and listen for unconscious patterns across time. Therapy involves helping people develop internal safety, moving at a pace appropriate to the client, and staying focused on the client’s inner goals. I am sex-positive, kink-aware, and LBGTQ-affirming.

Generally, I work with clients motivated to change something in their lives. I enjoy working with people who have done talk therapy in the past, but who want a more active, direct, and relationally engaged therapist to help them approach problems from their roots. People may come to therapy due to acute emotional distress or a desire for more self-trust. They may want to increase their ability to connect with and show up for the people and causes important to them. Regardless of the therapeutic model used, research shows that the quality of the connection between therapist and client is paramount for effective treatment. The work I do focuses on this relationship and uses it to help clients identify and repair harmful ways of relating to others (and self).

The foundation of my practice involves helping people improve their ability to track and connect with their thoughts, feelings, and body sensations at the same time. Many people learn to keep their honest and complex feelings, urges, and longings hidden, even from themselves. Over time, this leads to unfulfilling relationships, psychological and somatic symptoms, and less vibrancy in life.

Experiential dynamic therapy (EDT) coupled with mindfulness-based approaches allows people to increase awareness of and compassion for patterns that may have kept those longings and feelings underground. With their goals in mind, clients are invited to learn new ways of thinking and feeling in real time. This work is both challenging and rewarding, often resulting in feelings of relief, decreased anxiety, improved emotion regulation, enhanced cognitive flexibility, and more flourishing in life.