New to Grow
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor with extensive experience in behavioral health, substance use treatment, trauma-informed care, and clinical leadership. My approach to therapy is compassionate, collaborative, and evidence-based, integrating modalities such as CBT, DBT, ACT, attachment-focused therapy, and Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy to help clients create meaningful and lasting change. I work with adolescents and adults experiencing anxiety, trauma, emotional overwhelm, relationship difficulties, perfectionism, life transitions, attachment wounds, and stress-related challenges. Many of my clients are high-functioning individuals who appear successful outwardly but struggle internally with emotional regulation, self-worth, burnout, or feeling disconnected from themselves and others. My goal is to create a safe, supportive environment where clients feel understood while also being empowered to grow. Through therapy, I help clients develop healthier coping strategies, improve relationships, strengthen emotional resilience, and reconnect with their values and sense of purpose so they can experience greater fulfillment and balance in their lives.
During the first therapy session, my primary goal is to help clients feel comfortable, supported, and understood while beginning to build a strong therapeutic relationship. We typically start with housekeeping information and questions, including confidentiality, scheduling, practice policies, communication expectations, and what clients can expect from the therapy process. From there, we explore the precipitating event or circumstances that led the client to seek therapy at this point in their life. I provide space for clients to share their concerns, current stressors, emotional experiences, relationship dynamics, or patterns they may be struggling with while helping them feel heard without judgment. As the session progresses, I begin asking more exploratory questions to identify underlying themes, emotional patterns, attachment dynamics, coping styles, strengths, and areas of distress. Together, we begin identifying potential goals for therapy and discuss what meaningful progress may look like for the client. Depending on the individual client and session needs, I may assign light reflective homework or coping exercises between sessions, though this is always collaborative and tailored to the client’s readiness and goals.
What makes me unique as a therapist is my ability to balance deep emotional insight with practical, actionable strategies. I bring both executive-level behavioral health leadership experience and genuine clinical empathy into the therapy room, which allows me to understand clients not only emotionally, but also from a broader behavioral and systemic perspective. My approach is highly integrative and individualized, incorporating attachment-focused work, trauma-informed care, CBT, DBT, ACT, and emotionally focused interventions based on the unique needs of each client. I strive to create an environment where clients feel both supported and challenged in a healthy way, helping them gain insight while also developing practical tools for meaningful change. I work particularly well with high-functioning individuals who may appear successful externally but struggle internally with anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, relationship difficulties, emotional overwhelm, or unresolved trauma. My professional background in behavioral health leadership also gives me a strong understanding of stress, pressure, caregiving roles, and emotional exhaustion. Above all, I believe therapy should go beyond insight alone. My goal is to help clients increase self-awareness, strengthen emotional resilience, improve relationships, and create lasting change that translates into their everyday lives.
My ideal client is likely someone who is highly functional on the outside but emotionally overwhelmed internally. They are often insightful, self-aware, achievement-oriented, and motivated for change, but struggle with anxiety, attachment wounds, perfectionism, emotional avoidance, burnout, relationship difficulties, trauma responses, or difficulty regulating emotions. I am well-suited for clients who: Want depth-oriented therapy but also practical tools and structure Appreciate an intellectually engaged therapist who can connect insight with action Have complex trauma, attachment injuries, or relational patterns they want to change Feel “stuck” despite being high performers professionally or personally Need both validation and accountability Prefer evidence-based approaches integrated with emotional processing May have histories of caregiving, chronic stress, leadership roles, helping professions, or substance use/recovery environments
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
In my private practice, I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as part of an evidence-based, client-centered approach to help individuals develop greater psychological flexibility and improve overall functioning. ACT is especially effective with clients experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, chronic stress, substance use concerns, emotional avoidance, and life-transition difficulties.
Attachment-based
In my practice, I use attachment-based theories to help clients understand how early relational experiences influence current patterns in relationships, emotional regulation, trust, and self-worth. I work collaboratively with clients to identify attachment patterns and help them build healthier relational skills, improve emotional safety, and develop more secure connections with themselves and others.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I also incorporate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions to help clients identify and challenge unhelpful thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors that contribute to emotional distress. Using CBT techniques, I support clients in developing healthier coping strategies, improving emotional regulation, and creating practical behavioral changes that align with their treatment goals and daily functioning.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
I incorporate Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) techniques to help clients improve emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness skills. DBT is particularly helpful for clients experiencing intense emotions, impulsivity, relationship instability, self-destructive behaviors, or difficulty managing stress, and I use these interventions to help clients build practical coping strategies and increase resilience in daily life.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
I also utilize Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) principles to help clients better understand emotional patterns, attachment needs, and relational dynamics that impact their mental health and interpersonal functioning. To strengthen my competency in this approach, I completed additional advanced training and study toward certification in Emotionally Focused Therapy, allowing me to further integrate attachment-focused and experiential interventions into my clinical practice.