My Approach
I view the therapeutic process as one of connection and partnership. My role as a therapist is to join you in identifying and exploring the patterns, stories, feelings, and perspectives that have shaped your inner obstacles, as well as your inner resources. I may do this by listening quietly, by leading you more directly with questions and observations, by encouraging connection with your body, your history, or your emotional experience.
While it may be confusing or overwhelming, you know your own experience better than anyone else. So, it is my job to help lead you through that maze of sensation, history, wants, and needs with kindness and honesty. Rather than changing who you are, this process is about supporting you in becoming a more connected, and skillful version of yourself so that you can navigate your life, both its joys and hardships, with more autonomy and with fuller access to what makes you feel connected to the things and people you care about. I hold moments of difficulty and moments of levity with equal appreciation, because therapy, while genuinely hard work, is not without its humor and joy. It’s worth reveling in the good just as much as it is working through the difficult.
Modalities I draw From
My therapeutic style is integrative. This means that there is no one size fits all approach to our work. Grounded in trauma-informed and relational psychodynamic perspectives, you can expect to move at your own pace.
I maintain an engaged and active therapeutic stance with attention to building trust and a safe connection with me and with yourself. From this foundation, I may weave in interventions from narrative therapy, ACT, IFS parts-work, EMDR and exposure-based modalities to support you in working toward your therapeutic goals with warmth and respect. In practice, this may look like identifying the stories and perspectives that have shaped your sense of who you are and how you should be (narrative therapy). I may support you in building awareness and acceptance of your internal experience and identify your values more clearly (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). We may spend time identifying the different parts of yourself and explore how they may more effectively work together to support you and reduce inner conflict (IFS parts-work). We may focus in on your physical experience in order to better develop the mind-body connection (somatic therapy). Our bodies give us endless information about both our internal resources and our interpretation of external demands. By more effectively reading these signs, we are better able to use our most wise self to act on our values rather than react from old, outdated patterns and impulses. I use a variety of trauma processing approaches, depending on your specific needs, to help you process and move through traumatic experiences so that you can let go and let rest what belongs in the past while acknowledging and bringing forward the strength that got you through (EMDR and other trauma processing techniques). Your experience and what you want from this process will guide our work every step of the way.
Where do we start?
I always begin with a free 15 to 20 minute consultation call in which you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for and I share a bit more about how we might work together. If we feel like a good fit, we’ll go ahead and schedule a first session.
What is a first session like?
The single most important element of effective therapy is the quality of the therapeutic relationship. Therefore, The first few sessions are all about getting to know each other, building comfort and connection, and identifying your goals. I make sure we take our time getting to know each other and building trust. I typically aim to strike a balance between addressing any immediate concerns or questions you may have, learning a little bit about who you are and where you come from, and getting clarity on what feeling better might look like for you. This is an important part of the process so I encourage my clients to pay close attention to if we feel like a good fit. Sometimes you can tell right away, sometimes this may take a few sessions, so we will come back to this question often in the beginning.
Who Do I work With?
I work with adults of all ages navigating trauma, life transitions, identity questions, and relational challenges. I see individuals and couples and welcome clients from all backgrounds. I offer therapy both in person in San Francisco and via telehealth.
While I don’t work with insurance directly, I provide a superbill upon request for potential out-of-network reimbursement, and I reserve space in my practice for reduced fee and sliding scale sessions.