After graduating from the UCLA Luskin School of Social Work I relocated directly to Placer County and have been providing behavioral health services locally ever since. I have more than 10 years of direct practice clinical experience, both in mental health and substance use treatment. I received my license to practice clinical social work in 2017, and have recently begun supervising associates as well. I have experience in treating a range of mental health concerns, from Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorders, to Bipolar and Major Depressive Disorders, as well as anxiety disorders including PTSD and OCD. I believe that participating in therapy can be a uniquely beneficial process towards improving overall health and wellness. Whether it's healing from past traumas, adjusting to changes in life, implementing new ways of thinking and feeling, or working to define our sense of self and value system, therapy can be an invaluable support along the way. I am currently offering telehealth appointments for individuals and couples. Integrating techniques from cognitive therapies with the unstructured components of narrative therapy offers many benefits. This allows for the opportunity to share and process your story in your way, while taking time to notice and reflect on your thoughts and feelings along the way. My approach can be helpful in many ways, including processing past traumas, managing and improving depression, anger, and anxiety, addressing self-judgement and guilt, and identifying ruminative and false thoughts. If any of this sounds like it will be helpful to you, please reach out to me and schedule a phone consultation or initial appointment.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
We will review what is bringing you into therapy, what goals you hope to achieve during this time, and what experiences you've had with therapy in the past, including what has worked well for you and what was not a good fit.
What treatment methods and tools do you utilize?
I rely heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) methods during my sessions. With CBT, the focus is on understanding the thoughts that we have and how these affect our emotions, which in turn affect our behaviors. We work together to identify false and harmful thoughts, and then utilize various tools to challenge and reframe these thoughts to be more aligned with your values. With DBT, the focus is on acceptance of intense emotions though skill building of four primary areas: Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Emotional Regulation. I utilize various symptom measurement tools throughout the duration of treatment in order to gain a baseline understanding of symptom prevalence and assess for progress along the way.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
The relationship between a therapist and an individual receiving therapy is a unique one, unlike any other relationships we naturally form in life. In order for therapy to work as designed, it is important that this be a trusting, safe, and positive relationship. I specialize in working with adults who find themselves questioning their sense of self and their value system, wanting to better understand the way they are thinking and feeling, and oftentimes wanting to feel like they have more control over their thought and behavioral patterns.