Licensed to practice in California and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in Couples Counseling, Life Transitions, Anxiety and 6 more.
(She/Her)
New to Grow
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who works with adults and couples who want to better understand themselves, their relationships, and the patterns they keep finding themselves in. People often come to me during times of transition, when relationships feel strained, or when they realize that the ways they’ve learned to cope, communicate, or protect themselves aren’t working quite as well anymore. I’m especially interested in the way our relationships and experiences shape how we see ourselves and what we come to expect from the people around us. Sometimes the thing bringing you to therapy is very clear. Other times, it’s harder to name—you may just know that you’re overwhelmed, disconnected, repeating a familiar pattern, or not feeling quite like yourself. My style is warm, engaged, and collaborative. I want therapy to be a place where you can be thoughtful and curious about yourself without feeling like you have to have everything figured out first. We’ll make sense of what’s happening now, how you got here, and what might need to shift for life and relationships to feel different.
My hope is that you leave our first session thinking, “That felt really good. I’m glad I came.” Maybe you felt understood in a way you weren’t expecting, noticed something about yourself differently, or simply felt relieved to have a place where you didn’t have to organize everything perfectly before saying it out loud. Our first session is about beginning to understand what brought you here and getting a fuller sense of you—not just the symptoms or problem that led you to schedule. I’ll want to hear about what has been feeling difficult, the important relationships in your life, experiences that have shaped you, and what you hope could feel different. I’ll ask questions and follow the places that seem important, while allowing the conversation to unfold naturally. You can expect me to be engaged with you from the beginning. I may share something I’m noticing, get curious about a pattern I hear, or slow us down around something that seems meaningful. At the same time, you don’t need to tell me everything in one session or go anywhere you aren’t ready to go. Of course, we’ll talk about what you’d like to get out of therapy and begin thinking together about where our work might take us. But more than anything, I want that first hour to give you a sense of what therapy with me will actually feel like—and to leave feeling glad you came.
I pay close attention—not only to what you tell me, but to the things you almost move past. I’m often curious about the moment you hesitate, the pattern that keeps showing up, or the reaction that seems bigger than you expected. Those moments can tell us something important about what’s happening for you. My style is warm and compassionate, but I’m also active in the room. I won’t just sit back and leave you wondering what I’m thinking. I’ll ask thoughtful questions, share what I’m noticing, and gently challenge you when I think there may be another way of understanding something. I also bring humor and humanity into the room when it fits—therapy can be meaningful without every moment feeling heavy. One of my strengths is helping people connect what they understand intellectually with what they actually experience emotionally. You may already know why you do something and still find yourself doing it. Together, we can get curious about what happens in those moments and what makes a familiar response so hard to change. I bring years of clinical experience to this work, but I never assume that expertise makes me the expert on you. I see therapy as something we figure out together, with my clinical knowledge alongside your knowledge of yourself and your life.
My ideal client is someone who is thoughtful and curious about themselves and wants to understand more than simply how to make a difficult feeling go away. They may already have quite a bit of insight into themselves, but still find themselves caught in familiar patterns—having the same argument with their partner, overthinking an interaction long after it’s over, struggling to ask for what they need, or responding in ways they understand afterward but have a hard time changing in the moment. I especially enjoy working with people who are curious about how their experiences and relationships have shaped the way they see themselves and connect with others. They may be navigating a transition, feeling disconnected in an important relationship, struggling with anxiety or self-doubt, or simply realizing that something in their life no longer feels quite right. You don’t need to come to therapy knowing exactly what the problem is or what you want to change. Sometimes the starting point is simply, “I keep ending up here, and I want to understand why.” From there, we can begin making sense of the patterns together and creating space for something different.
I use an attachment-based approach to help you understand the patterns that show up in your relationships and emotional life. We’ll get curious about how earlier experiences may have shaped what you’ve learned to expect from others, what helps you feel secure and connected, and what happens when that sense of security feels threatened. I also pay close attention to the relationship we build together. Therapy offers a unique opportunity to experience a consistent, responsive relationship while noticing relational patterns as they emerge in real time. The goal isn’t to blame the past, but to understand why certain reactions make so much sense—and create new experiences that can shape how you relate to yourself and others.
I use Emotionally Focused Therapy to help couples move beyond the argument itself and understand what is happening between them when they lose connection. Together, we’ll identify the cycle you get pulled into, slow down the moments when it takes over, and better understand what each of you is feeling and needing underneath your reactions. Rather than deciding who is right or wrong, we work toward helping you reach for one another in ways that create greater safety, responsiveness, and connection.
I believe the relationship we build in therapy is an important part of the work itself. I want to know how you experience me and our conversations, and I pay attention to what happens between us in the room. Therapy can become a place to notice familiar patterns as they happen in real time and safely try something different. I bring my own warmth, curiosity, and humanity into our relationship rather than approaching therapy from a distant or overly clinical stance.