Licensed Psychologist in CA, OR, WA, & NY
Meet the flow of your experience with flexibility and compassion.
Individual therapy for high achievers who are ready to transform their relationships with anxiety, trauma, grief, and/or substance use
You don't have to flounder in the waters of painful thoughts and feelings.
I specialize in working with people who:
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Feel deeply, and are sometimes overwhelmed by emotions, including anxiety, real or perceived rejection, grief, or responses to trauma
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Learned that it was "safer" in their early learning environments, or in the context of trauma, to blame themselves to make sense of the world
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Tend to be high performers and have worked very hard to prove their value in relationships or at work through achievement, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or fawning
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Have tried to amplify positive emotions or stifle painful ones with substance use
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May identify as members of marginalized groups, including 2SLGBTQIA+ and people of the global majority (PoGM), or as neurodivergent
You can create a different relationship with your inner experiences.
Guided by evidence-based therapies, you'll learn to:
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Understand the adaptive function of unworkable patterns
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Free yourself from rigid adherence to perfectionism and self-criticism, while maintaining your high standards
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Connect to your deeper values and clarify your purpose, even in the midst of challenge and uncertainty
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Set boundaries, practice assertiveness, and use your voice in relationships
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Develop a flexible and compassionate perspective of yourself, so you can be empowered to move forward with purpose and agency
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Value the wisdom of your emotions, without letting them run your life, and embrace your full, evolving identity
There is life where you are.
Using empirically supported treatments to guide our work, you can gain freedom from the struggle, learn to unhook yourself from habitual ways of responding, and live life on your terms, even in the presence of pain.
The tenets of third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies, including Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) are below:
Return to the present moment, even if it's uncomfortable.
You thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, all serve a function, and are usually designed to protect you. They might engage in some form of time traveling, or pulling your attention, to the past or present. Anywhere but here! We'll practice coming back to yourself, and meeting the moment with compassion.
Create distance from painful thoughts.
Your mind is designed to keep you safe. One of the ways it does this is by making rapid associations about stimuli in your environment, informed by your learning history. You'll learn to zoom out, observe what's happening, disengage with unhelpful control, and redirect your attention to what matters.
Experience your thoughts and emotions as an evolving flow.
We'll develop a steady, gentle presence towards yourself, even when emotions and thoughts might feel overwhelming or spiraling. You'll learn to get a sense of yourself as a vessel that carries experiences, but is not the experiences themselves.
Take clear steps in the direction of your values.
Your thoughts and emotions don't have to run your life - in fact, the more they do, the smaller your life gets. In therapy, you'll clarify your values, and be encouraged to take concrete steps in their direction, even if difficult thoughts and feelings are along for the ride.
