New to Grow
If you’re reading this, you’re probably carrying something heavy — and you may have been carrying it longer than you should have had to. I’m glad you’re here. I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist licensed in both New York and New Jersey, and I work with adults and couples who are navigating some of life’s most emotionally demanding seasons: parenting stress, relationship strain, depression, ADHD, and the kind of high-functioning exhaustion that doesn’t always look like struggle from the outside but absolutely feels like it. My approach is relational at its core. I believe that healing rarely happens in isolation — it happens in connection. Before any technique or homework assignment, I prioritize building a therapeutic relationship where you actually feel safe enough to be honest. That foundation isn’t just good therapy etiquette; it’s what makes everything else possible. From there, I draw on a range of evidence-based frameworks — attachment theory, CBT, DBT, and person-centered approaches — tailoring the work to what you specifically need rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model. Some clients need tools and structure. Others need space to process and be witnessed. Most need both, at different moments. I’ve worked with many people who came to therapy after putting it off for a long time — sometimes years. What kept them away was often fear: fear of judgment, fear of being misunderstood, or simply not knowing what therapy was supposed to feel like. I take that seriously. My goal from the very first session is to help you feel less alone in what you’re facing, and more capable of moving through it. You don’t have to have it figured out before you reach out. That’s what we’re here to do together.
Starting therapy takes courage — and I don’t take that lightly. The first session is designed with that in mind. There’s no pressure to have a perfectly organized narrative or to know exactly what you want to work on. We start where you are. We’ll spend our first time together doing something that might feel simple but is actually foundational: I’ll listen. You’ll have space to share what’s been going on, what’s brought you to therapy at this particular moment, and what you’re hoping life could look like on the other side of this work. I’ll ask questions — not to evaluate you, but to understand you. If you’ve had therapy before, I’ll want to know about that too. What felt helpful, what didn’t, what left you feeling unseen or misunderstood. That history matters, and it shapes how we work together from the start. If this is your first time in therapy, we’ll move at whatever pace feels right for you. I also know that beginning something new — especially something this personal — can stir up anxiety of its own. That’s completely normal, and you’re allowed to name it. Part of what we’re doing in that first session is establishing that this is a space where you don’t have to manage your emotions before bringing them in. By the end of our first meeting, my goal is for you to leave with a clearer sense of what our work together might look like, and — more importantly — a felt sense that this is somewhere you can actually be real. Not perform wellness. Not have everything together. Just show up honestly. That first step is often the hardest. Everything else we build from there.
One of the things I hear most often from clients is that they felt at ease sooner than they expected — sometimes within the first session. For people who came in braced for judgment or dreading the vulnerability of opening up to a stranger, that tends to come as a relief. Creating that kind of safety quickly isn’t accidental; it’s something I’m intentional about, because I know that nothing meaningful happens in therapy until a person genuinely feels they can be honest. Beyond the relational piece, I think one of my real clinical strengths is the ability to help clients see their situation differently — not in a way that minimizes what they’re going through, but in a way that opens up options they couldn’t see before. When someone has been living inside a painful pattern for a long time, it can feel like walls. Part of what I do is help them find the door. Clients often describe this as a “I never thought of it that way” moment — and those moments matter, because they’re the beginning of actual movement. I’m also skilled at holding complexity without rushing to resolve it. People are not their diagnoses, and their struggles are rarely as simple as they’ve been led to believe. I work to understand the full picture — the history, the nervous system, the relationships, the inner narrative — and from that understanding, I help clients build a clearer, more compassionate relationship with themselves. What I bring to every session is genuine curiosity, clinical depth, and a direct but warm communication style. I don’t do a lot of vague reflecting back. I engage. I notice things. I’ll say what I see with care.
My ideal clients (who I can ideally help) are people who are self-aware enough to know something isn’t working — even if they can’t yet name exactly what it is. They’re often high-functioning on the outside: holding down careers, managing families, showing up for everyone around them. But internally, they’re running on empty, and they’ve reached a point where they’re ready to consider taking steps to address it. I work well with intellectually curious people who want to understand themselves, not just feel better in the short term. They’re the kind of clients who appreciate a therapist who will engage with them — ask the harder question, offer a reframe, challenge a pattern with care. They’re not looking to be talked at; they want a real thinking partner in the room. Parents under stress are a particular focus. Parenting is one of the most emotionally activating roles a person can hold, and it has a way of surfacing everything unresolved — old attachment wounds, identity questions, relationship strain, fear of failure. I find deep meaning in helping parents reconnect with themselves so they can show up more fully for their kids and their own lives. I also work well with adults navigating ADHD, depression, and major life transitions — the moments that force a reckoning with who you’ve been and who you want to become. Phase-of-life challenges don’t always come with a crisis attached, but they carry real weight, and they deserve real attention. If you’re someone who is genuinely open to looking inward, willing to be honest as best they can, even when it’s uncomfortable, and ready to move from surviving to something that feels more like thriving — we’re probably a good fit.
Person-centered (Rogerian)
Before any technique or intervention can work, a person has to feel genuinely safe and seen. I bring unconditional positive regard into every session — no judgment, no agenda, just a deep commitment to understanding your experience on your terms. That kind of alliance isn’t just warmth; research consistently shows it’s one of the strongest predictors of meaningful change.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Our thoughts shape how we feel and how we move through the world — but not all thoughts are accurate. CBT helps clients slow down and examine the stories their minds are telling them, especially the ones that fuel anxiety and depression. I find this approach works best when it’s collaborative rather than prescriptive, so we build that foundation first and then do the cognitive work together.
Attachment-based
Many of the patterns that bring people into therapy — the anxiety, the emotional shutdowns, the relationship struggles — have roots in early attachment experiences. In our work together, the therapeutic relationship itself becomes part of the healing. Through a corrective, consistent connection (what’s sometimes called “re-parenting”), clients begin to internalize a sense of safety they may never have had. This can be quietly transformative for people who’ve spent years managing alone.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
Life can hand us moments that feel completely overwhelming — and sometimes our own nervous system works against us. DBT gives clients a concrete toolkit: skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation that actually work in the real world, not just in a therapy room. I’ve seen clients who once felt hijacked by their emotions develop a real sense of steadiness and choice in how they respond.