Licensed to practice in 2 states and accepts 10 insurances. Specializes in Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and PTSD
(she/her)
Hi! I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) based in California. I received my undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at San Antonio and my Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Santa Barbara. I have been practicing for 10 years. I work with children, adults, and couples who have experienced struggle in their personal or professional relationships and are motivated to develop self-empowerment, self-actualization, and the capacity to thrive in all of their relationships, including the one with themselves.
In our first session, we take the time to introduce ourselves to one another. This is a space where you get to externalize the challenges that have caught your attention and motivated you to seek support. It is also an opportunity for you to share who and what is important in your life, what motivates you to change, and how your challenges have impeded these parts of your life.
I have a lifetime of experiences, both professionally and personally, which have developed my capacity to be compassionate and curious. I believe in the therapeutic process and the social arrangement of the therapy session where I get to support you and your process of self-awareness, self-regulation, acceptance, and the ongoing development of self-empowerment and hope. I practice Somatic Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Grief Therapy, as well as other modalities which work succinctly to support this integrative process of healing.
I love working with a variety of people, including children, the healthy aging population, college students, adolescents and pre-adolesecents, adults and children who have been impacted by traumatic events, and couples who need support with their process of safety and intimacy. My clients are often aware that their family systems have both positive and challenging qualities and the process of reshaping can be difficult and extraordinary, healing. They desire inclusivity, tolerance, unconditional care, compassion, curiosity, and unbiased support so that they can safely move their attention toward the parts of themselves that feel overwhelmed, anxious, depressed or “stuck.”
Somatic Psychotherapy invites clients to explore how their bodies hold information, including memories, thoughts, and feelings. We explore how to self-regulate by moving our attention to our physical sensations, movement, and nonverbal communication. It is a process of finding our way from a state of emotional escalation, ie., the hyperarousal state (fight or flight) or hypoarousal state (freeze) to the window of tolerance (window of resilience; home), a space where emotions are regulate and integrated.
ACT explores with an intention of compassion and curiosity as clients move into the process of healing. We approach behavior, thought and emotional patterns with gratitude, noticing that the human mind has two primary purposes, i.e. to assess and keep us safe. ACT invites clients to identify patterns which are “no longer useful,” and make manageable adjustments, so that new positive core beliefs can be established.
CBT is a top down approach to the human healing process. Often, thoughts are readily noticed and identified during the healing process. Sometimes, people notice “rumination” or “overthinking” and feel impacted by the related emotional experience(s) of anxiety or depression (for example). CBT invites awareness, empowerment, a step-by-step process, validation, reframe and re-experiencing. Somatic work often involves the pendulation between this cognitive healing process and the physical healing process.
Dr. Sue Johnson’s EFT approach includes mindfulness, somatic awareness, and cognitive process. It is inclusive and invites each couple to explore both their autonomy and the importance of self-regulation, as well as the vulnerability space of intimacy and transparency. This is the modality I use most commonly with couples.
I have found that grief is predominant in many healing experiences, whether it is the grief of someone who has died, a relationship that has ended, or when roles have changed in a family dynamic, particularly when someone begins to change and develop healthy boundaries. The stages of grief introduces the process of acceptance. It validates feelings, concluding shock, sadness, and anger, and it normalizes common behavior patterns, including the bargaining stage and avoidance. Likewise, it introduces a variety of skills which support the client’s engagement in the process of acceptance. Grief Therapy supports a persons’ ability to integrate past relationships, including both positive and negative experiences, so that emotional growth can occur.
1 rating with written reviews
February 14, 2025
With other therapists I have had, at many times, I feel like I was left to kind of figure out where to go with a session if I did not have anything specific to bring up. With Heidi, she does a wonderful job of guiding the session to uncover something I did not even know needed to come up.