Hello. I am a licensed clinical psychologist who studied at UCSB, Pepperdine and California Southern Universities; I hold a bachelors, masters and doctoral degree. My main focus is to help people find the answers to their problems by working collaboratively. I am a very open minded and non-judgmental therapist with a lot of personal life experience and a high level of education. I focus on kindness, integrity and courage in my personal and professional life.
In the first session, we will review the reasons for therapy and how to make our sessions successful by coming up with clear goals. Every session after we will work on the predefined goals and implementation of new skills and tools. In each session we will do a review of progress and then discuss and process events. New skills will be offered and we will perform EMDR, thought re-framing, reality testing, mindfulness techniques, or processing of emotions and new perspectives as needed.
My greatest strength is helping people feel comfortable so that they can be open and dislcose things that are hard to talk about. I truly aim to be seen as collaborative and equal so that there are no power dynamics, I am simply there to help my clients find the answers within themselves, so that they have the confidence in themselves to succed and prosper.
I use a holistic approach that incorporates various therapeutic modalities including CBT, DBT, EMDR and motivational interviewing within a client centered approach. We will look not only at the psyche but also sleep, substance, activity level, and eating habits in order to address the whole person.
I use a lot of CBT approaches including thought re-framing, reality testing, analyzing core beliefs and automatic thoughts.
I am trained by the EMDRIA institute and I can do EMDR and EMDR techniques.
I utilize motivational interviewing to help people find the answers and motivation within themselves.
Mindfulness techniques and distress tolerance are part of every session and we will label emotions, find effective coping skills for overwhelm while strengthening interpersonal skills.