In our first session together, here's what you can expect

I know that meeting a new therapist can be a little nerve wrecking. As such, one of my main goals during our first session is to you make you feel relaxed and understood. I always have a non-judgmental attitude and you will be able to see that for yourself in the first session. We will start getting to know each other and confirm that I am a good match for what you are looking for in therapy. I will provide you with legal and ethical disclosures. I will review the administrative details about my practice and about using your insurance, if you are using insurance benefits. I will then ask you questions so I can better understand your history. It is my honor and privilege to hear your story, and I will always approach it from a non-judgmental and non-shaming attitude. I do this first because it’s the right thing to do but also because I have never seen someone change if they were shamed or disrespected. I will ask you about your symptoms and how much these symptoms impact your life. We will also start identifying your strengths and recognizing what you have already done successfully. With this information, we will start formulating your goals for therapy. If you are coming to see me for treatment of trauma symptoms, we will start talking about these symptoms and associated history, but I will make sure to do this in a manner that minimizes the sense of overwhelm.

The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions

Some of my greatest strengths are my intelligence, my unending curiosity and my non-judgmental attitude. I have also cultivated a certain joy about the world, despite its many challenges, and I bring this joy and hope to therapy to either help you change or help you better accept a certain situation. I believe that therapy is more than knowing WHY we have the patterns we do. I believe a crucial part of therapy is having more tools on HOW to change these patterns. As such, I use tools from various therapy models such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family System (IFS), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). I make sure to customize these tools to fit your unique attributes, preferences, and goals. However, all the techniques in the world do not matter if you and I don’t have a strong relationship and this is a place in which I believe I excel. I can’t guarantee that your symptoms will decrease, although the majority of my clients do experience a reduction in many of their symptoms. The one thing I can guarantee is that I will care deeply about your wellbeing. I will be compassionate and caring when you are suffering, I will worry about you when things are difficult, I will gently challenge you when it is appropriate for you in order to achieve your goals and I will celebrate with you your successes.

The clients I'm best positioned to serve

Do you have a lot of symptoms? Do you have symptoms but you are not sure why they are happening; for example, is your difficulty with concentration due to depression or due to ADHD? Would you or others describe your mental and physical symptoms as complex? My specialty in therapy is to provide help to clients who have several, overlapping symptoms and difficulties. In particular, I have been particularly effective in reducing or eliminating symptoms for clients that have a mix of some of the groups of symptoms below: 1) PTSD and trauma symptoms. Symptoms can include • feeling always on edge, anxious, not feeling safe • nightmares, night terrors or flashbacks • difficulty with self-esteem • difficulty in relationships with others • difficulty with emotional regulation including difficulty regulating anger, having very intense emotions and changing emotions rapidly • feeling sad or depressed, which can include lack of interest in most things, difficulty with motivation, difficulty with concentration and impacts to sleep and appetite • always feeling tired or depleted 2) Symptoms related to being neurodiverse and having ADHD, autism or AuDHD (whether you have a formal diagnosis or not). Symptoms can include • executive functioning issues such as - difficulty with short term memory - difficulty with planning, organizing and sequencing tasks - impulsivity - hyperactivity, such as feeling like you are driven by a motor or ruminating thoughts - being either hyper-focused or not focused at all - procrastination and time blindness - emotional dysregulation • Neurodiversity symptoms such as - difficulty with social communications, including reading and responding to social cues - difficulty accepting how unfair life can be - sensory overload (to light, sounds, smells) and burnout; or intense sensory seeking - difficulty with transitions - worrying about the way you appear to others - time needed to process certain information - need to mask symptoms at work, at home and with friends I have also found that many neurodiverse clients have issues with shame due to the way others have reacted to their neurodiversity when they were growing up. 3) Experience chronic physical pain and/or illnesses I serve clients who often have chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Long Covid, recurrent inflammation, Chron's disease, ulcerative colitis, migraines and many immune-system disorder