Empowerment, Collaboration, Connection, & Healing It can be really hard to find a therapist who has similar identities and lived experiences. As a biracial/bicultural mother, psychologist, and associate professor, I recognize the importance of a therapist who gets it. My goal is to support you and honor your experience by listening to what you need from a healing space. I am gender-affirming, LGBTQ+ affirming, and recognize the significance of race and culture. My therapeutic approach is best characterized by warmth, responsiveness, empowerment, and authenticity. I have extensive clinical experience and training working with individuals struggling with identity, relational problems, family of origin issues, trauma, self-esteem, depression, anxiety and stress management. I meet you where you are with a range of psychological approaches and tools to help you increase awareness, identify relational patterns, build coping strategies, and feel empowered to live authentically. Outside of my practice, I teach graduate counseling courses, provide supervision, and publish on biracial identity, anti-oppressive training of mental health providers, and racism-based trauma.
My goal in the first session is for us to identify whether I'm a good fit for your needs and collaborate on a plan together. In order to do that, we'll review your reason for starting therapy at this time, begin to explore your world and collaborate to identify goals for working together.
Collaboration and connection are my strengths. I am deeply committed to meeting you where you are. I believe that you are the expert on you while I'm the expert on the therapeutic process. I check in throughout our sessions and am open to feedback about whether our work together is meeting your needs. I work with you to help you identify patterns that no longer serve you and empower you to choose whether you shift those patterns as you become aware.
My approach is grounded in humanistic approaches to therapy: you are a whole person and my goal is to support your healing so you access your full power and potential. I am informed by a variety of therapeutic frameworks including intersectional feminist theory, emotion-focused therapy, Internal Family Systems, narrative therapy, and liberation psychotherapy. From these approaches, I utilize a variety of tools such as mindfulness, relational skills, psychoeducation, two-chair, and empty-chair, as well as focusing on emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.