About Me
My work as a therapist is shaped by my own experience in treatment. I understand how stubborn problems can become because I have experienced this battle myself. I believe that every story is complex and that there are no simple conclusions.
I have witnessed tremendous changes in people, seen clients turn their lives around in ways they and those around them envisioned were absolutely impossible. Getting there, however, can be messy.
Change doesn’t come in a neat, linear package. Progress might feel slow, but I am here to appreciate every stride, no matter how small, and recognize how huge they may feel to you.
My job is to hold onto hope for you when it’s difficult for you to do so your own.
Areas of Focus
My expertise is in working with problematic relationships to substances, food, and the body. In my practice, I work with adolescents, adults, families, and couples.
I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, with extensive training in Narrative and Solution Focused Brief Therapy and I hold a Bachelors in Communications from the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, I have six years of experience working in the addiction treatment industry, both as a therapist and as a Clinical Director of an outpatient treatment center.
As a therapist, I’m interested in collaborating with you to find out what parts of your life you hope to keep or perhaps enrich, and what parts you would like to change.
Addiction isn't that simple.
I have worked in the addiction treatment industry for many years. Well–more accurately, I have worked with clients struggling with addiction in ways that land them outside of the mainstream rehab industry.
I am not interested in placing the blame and a permanent label on you. I see addiction as a coping mechanism in response to dynamic personal and social factors.
Our conversations will challenge the dominant practice of boiling addiction down to a problem that lies within your biology or your genetics. Instead, we will tease out the many complexities that make up your addiction.
While I understand that your past experiences and biological makeup may contribute to your current issues with substance use or problematic behaviors, I also know that it’s not that simple.
I have witnessed the effects of loneliness, isolation, trauma and societal pressures on my clients. From this, I have learned that a life lived with more community, connections, purpose and belonging can help stand up against the experience of feeling alone, broken, and doomed.
I know that addiction can be a monster, and I believe that you and I can find the way to your dreamed of life.
We are surrounded on all fronts by ideals of beauty, by standards for how we should look, how we should think, how we should talk. But these are rules made up by our culture and backed by powerful institutions.
In some way, shape, or form we are regularly told we are falling short. Maybe you are not pretty enough, or tall enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough professionally.
This encourages us to be persistent, to not give up, and to go for the gold. We are led to believe that if we just try hard enough, then maybe we can get to that destination that’s just out of reach.
Sometimes, this is actually the case. Working hard and persisting often grants us significant benefits in life. However, other times our well-meaning, coveted values for hard work and relentless pursuit turn on us because perfectionism is a moving target.
This is something that I understand intimately. If you’d like to read more about my story, read more here.
I am not here to tell you what is okay to strive for and what is not okay to strive for. If you think a different looking body would bring more happiness to your life, I respect that. My job is to have conversations that help illuminate what you want, why you want it, and how we can help work towards your preferred life.
It's not just about the food or your body.
There's many ways to be a parent.
Being a parent is the best and hardest thing I’ve ever done. In April of 2018, I became a solo parent to an awesome little boy, and I was immediately terrified. There was always something to worry about, and no shortage of reasons to feel like I was falling short.
You’ve probably noticed how many contradictory messages there are about how to “do it right.” Whether it’s baby books, the pediatrician, your child’s school, or your fellow parents, we are flooded with “huge no-no’s” and “must do’s.” But so often, one expert’s “must do” is another’s “absolutely not, never ever do.”
When the going gets tough, it’s easy to feel like it’s your fault because if something isn’t going according to plan, it’s probably because you opted for the wrong choice.
And if your family isn’t traditionally composed, this experience of feeling like you’re not meeting the standards of a good parent is only compounded. The measuring stick by which “good parenting” is defined is based, like most things, on heteronormative ideals. Out-of-the-box parents are, by default, doing something wrong against the backdrop of a normative playbook.
But there are other parents going about this differently too. I believe it is especially important to surround yourself with a community that is inclusive and perhaps even “gets it” in one way or another.
In conversations with you, my job is to make space for you to talk about your experiences openly and encourage curiosity. I aim to understand the specific meanings that you make out of your experiences, to explore where such meanings come from, and to collaborate with you on how to get you closer to where you’d prefer to be.
I believe in you.
When it comes to your life, I believe that you are the expert. I say this because I honestly do not know more about you than you do. If you are looking for someone to tell you who you are, why you have been engaging in certain behaviors, or whether you are leading a “healthy” or “unhealthy” lifestyle, then I am not the one for you.
People who have worked with me often say that our sessions feel like conversations. My therapeutic style is collaborative, conversational, and solution-focused. My goal is to ask you questions that will bring to light what matters to you, what’s getting in the way of your preferred life, and what resources you have that can help you with today’s life projects.
I don’t think that your continued struggle means that you aren’t interested in getting better. I believe that you are on your way to doing so right now in your active search for help.
If there’s a gap between the ways that you are showing up in your life and your values, priorities, and aspirations, I see my job as helping you narrow that gap.
I respect where you are in your life and firmly believe that you are capable of deciding where you want it to go.
Reach Out
Schedule a free consultation
Finding the right therapist is already hard enough. Why should you have to spend money every time you check one out? I offer free, 20 minute consultations so that you can interview me and find out if we’re a good match.
In these unprecedented times, I am offering virtual sessions so that we can meet in a manner that best fits your schedule and safety needs.