LP, 23 years of experience
Counseling can be a place where you make meaningful changes in yourself and your life. I tend to focus on a client’s strengths and use a coaching style. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral therapy (DBT) are typically used to develop new skills. I have a special interest in working with the LGBTQ community and consider myself an Ally. I primarily accept Kaiser clients, and self-pay clients. Please note you would need to get a referral from Kaiser first, which is an easy call and short intake with a social worker there. I look forward to meeting you soon!
Our first session will be focused on getting to know each other and setting some treatment goals for what you would like to work on. And we can decide if we are a good fit. Therapy is very personal, and it's important that you feel comfortable and believe our time together will be useful.
Clients evaluate the providers and Grow Therapy lists these comments on our page. Client feedback provided was that I am “warm, intelligent, authentic and solution-oriented.”
Telehealth has been a great way for people to fit counseling into their busy lives. Everyone can use support from time to time. It’s a safe place to process your feelings, address trauma or relationship issues and gain new distress tolerance and coping skills.
CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a type of "talking therapy" where a therapist helps you identify and change negative or unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors to manage problems and improve your well-being. It's a structured, evidence-based approach that focuses on current issues, teaching practical coping skills to challenge negative thoughts, change behaviors, and achieve goals. CBT can help with various mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, as well as other issues like relationship problems or life challenges.
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy that helps individuals heal from the distress caused by disturbing life experiences by using bilateral stimulation, like eye movements or tapping, while the client focuses on the memory. The goal is to allow the brain to process the memory and resolve the associated negative thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, enabling natural healing to resume and reducing the intensity of the trauma. EMDR involves eight phases and has been shown to be effective for conditions like PTSD, depression, and anxiety. The Department of Defense funded the research and it is an evidence-based treatment.
DBT is an acronym for Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a type of talking therapy that helps people manage intense emotions, self-destructive behaviors, and improve relationships. Originally developed to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), it combines acceptance-focused skills with change-focused skills to help people accept themselves and their situations while also working to change unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior and learn new distress tolerance skills. These skills fall into four main areas: Mindfulness: Focusing on the present moment without judgment. Distress Tolerance: Coping with difficult situations and emotions without making them worse. Emotion Regulation: Understanding and managing intense emotional responses. Interpersonal Effectiveness: Learning to manage relationships and communicate needs effectively.