Is this the right practice for you?

I have experience treating a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses and clinical issues. My specialties include the following:

• Psychosis

  • Psychosis includes a wide range of diagnoses including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and mood disorders with psychotic features. I have extensive experience treating psychotic disorders across the life span including specialized training treating first-episode psychosis. The earliest stages of psychosis present unique challenges for adolescents and young adults. People often struggle to make sense of a new diagnosis, figure out what’s real and what’s not, find their identities, navigate social relationships, deal with stigma, and maintain or re-enter work or school. It can be difficult for people to trust a therapist and they may skeptical about treatment in general. Treatment can help manage symptoms of psychosis, reduce distressing feelings, and improve functioning at work/school and in relationships.

• Couples Therapy

  • All relationships come with joys and challenges. Sometimes couples find themselves having the same arguments over and over, feeling disconnected from one another, or struggling to deal with difficult feelings like anger, resentment, and guilt. They may be struggling to find themselves as a couple amidst life transitions like moving in together, getting married, having children, becoming empty nesters, retiring, or others. Sometimes people may have trouble supporting their partner while they cope with other things like a mental health diagnosis, medical problems, or other stressors. Couples may struggle to set boundaries with friends or family. In these situations or others, having a neutral, compassionate couples therapist in the room can help people say and hear things that need to be said, explore patterns contributing to relationship problems, and create a space for new and healthier interactions. I offer couples therapy with a focus on opening up communication, expressing difficult feelings, and prioritizing and reigniting connection.

• Complex and Interpersonal Trauma

  • Complex trauma involves exposure to multiple traumatic events over an extended period of time. These traumatic events usually occur in the context of our relationships and they don’t always fit into the stereotypical idea of trauma, like a hurricane or an assault. Complex trauma often stems from repeated childhood experiences of being put down or invalidated, made to feel bad or worthless, or witnessing domestic violence or abuse. It can also develop from outright abuse or neglect. The effects of complex or interpersonal trauma are different from classic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and they can include difficulty controlling your emotions, distortions in your sense of self (like feeling worthless or bad), difficulty trusting people, feelings of emptiness, trouble setting boundaries with people, hopelessness, identity issues, physical symptoms (like headaches or stomach problems), and dissociative experiences (feeling numb or disconnected from the world, yourself, or other people). These symptoms often last years after the traumatic experiences stop, but treatment is possible!

My Therapy Approach

I believe that recovery is possible for everyone and healing occurs best in the context of an authentic, trusting relationship. Many of my clients come to me after other therapy approaches have not worked for them. We work not only to manage distressing symptoms, but also to break enduring patterns related to identity, relationships, emotional expression, and safety. In exploring these patterns, we often find that they stem from earlier experiences where we felt unsafe, out of control, or invalidated. In therapy we work to make meaning out of past experiences, break those patterns, learn more about ourselves, and move towards the life we want. In my own life, I’ve learned the importance of finding trusted people to sit with you in your pain to understand it before trying to fix it or talk you out of it. I strive to be collaborative, working with clients and moving at the pace that feels right or safe to them. My approach is strengths-based and my favorite part of therapy is being able to help clients see how strong and resilient they are.