LCSW, 18 years of experience
New to Grow
At my core, I am a therapist who believes in the transformative power of depth, empathy, humor, and the arts. I’ve spent my career helping people understand themselves more fully — not only by reducing symptoms, but by uncovering the narratives, emotions, and self-limiting beliefs that have kept them small or stuck. I work from a humanistic and psychoanalytic foundation, integrating mindfulness, ACT, and solution-focused strategies to help clients access resilience, self-compassion, and real change. I bring a warm, grounded, and creative presence into the room. My background as an artist and writer shapes my work: I’m attentive to symbolism, story, imagination, and the deeper layers of a person’s emotional life. Humor is also one of my most natural tools — not to avoid pain, but to help clients feel safe, open, and connected as they explore difficult experiences. Across corporate mental health, trauma work, refugee support, and private practice, I’ve seen how people flourish when they’re permitted to be fully themselves. I help clients build self-esteem through honesty, curiosity, and acceptance; loosen rigid patterns; and move beyond the internalized messages or roles that no longer serve them
Our first session will feel like a conversation — not an interview or a clinical exam. My goal is to get to know you with genuine curiosity, compassion, and ease. I’m interested in your story: how you see yourself, what you’ve been carrying, and what brings you here now. We’ll explore what’s working in your life, what’s not, and what you hope to shift. I won’t rush you. You can share at your own pace. Some clients start with the immediate problem; others begin with history or identity or a moment that feels symbolic. There’s no right or wrong place to begin. Together, we’ll map out what matters most to you — whether that’s managing anxiety, understanding patterns, strengthening self-esteem, healing old wounds, navigating relationships, or reconnecting with meaning or creativity. I also explain how I work, answer any questions you have, and collaborate on what our sessions should feel like for you. Most importantly, I want the first session to feel grounding and safe. You’ll walk away with a sense of being heard, understood, and met where you are — and with a clearer sense of how we might move forward together.
What stands out most in my therapeutic approach is the combination of depth, creativity, and warmth I bring into the room. I use humor, imagination, and genuine curiosity to help clients open up in ways that feel natural and human—not clinical or stiff. Clients often tell me that they feel both understood and disarmed, able to explore parts of themselves they usually keep hidden, including the tender, expressive, or conflicted aspects of identity. My work blends insight, emotional exploration, and creative thinking. I draw from psychoanalytic, humanistic, ACT, and narrative approaches, which allows clients to connect the dots between past and present while developing new ways of seeing themselves. I’m attentive to symbolism, story, and the deeper emotional truths that live beneath everyday life. The results clients experience are meaningful: more inner peace, greater emotional clarity, stronger self-esteem, and a renewed sense of creativity and possibility. Many describe a feeling of spaciousness—of being less bound by old patterns and more connected to their true selves. To me, therapy is ultimately about freedom: freedom from self-limiting beliefs, from shame, from old narratives, and from the weight people carry alone for too long. My goal is to help clients step into a life that feels more alive, authentic, and fully their own.
I am best positioned to serve clients who are ready for meaningful change — people who may be high-functioning on the outside but feel anxious, stuck, disconnected, or overwhelmed internally. Many of my clients are navigating life transitions, identity questions, relationship challenges, self-esteem issues, perfectionism, burnout, or long-standing emotional patterns they want to understand more deeply. I work especially well with individuals who are insightful, curious, and reflective — people who’ve done some therapy before or who feel there is something deeper within them that hasn’t been fully explored or voiced. I also support those who have been caregivers, helpers, or ‘strong ones’ in their families or workplaces and are only now realizing how much they have been carrying. Clients drawn to me often have rich inner lives: artists, thinkers, professionals under pressure, LGBTQ+ individuals, trauma survivors, and people who feel like they “don’t fit” in traditional settings. I’m also a good fit for those dealing with anxiety, self-limiting beliefs, shame, or patterns that keep repeating in relationships. I help clients who want more than symptom relief — people who want to understand themselves, break old cycles, strengthen self-esteem, access creativity and meaning, and move toward a life that feels more authentic and emotionally free. Together, we work on healing, growth, and the kind of transformation that becomes the foundation for long-term well-being.
I draw from this treatment method in a way that is both clinically grounded and deeply human. My background spans hospital systems, global humanitarian work, corporate mental health, and long-term psychotherapy, and I’ve consistently used this approach to help clients feel safe, seen, and empowered. In practice, I integrate this modality by creating a calm, regulated therapeutic space where clients can slow down, explore their emotional world without judgment, and build insight into their patterns. I use it to help people recognize triggers, understand the origins of their reactions, and develop healthier ways of coping. My style is warm, empathic, culturally attuned, and collaborative — I believe people heal best when they feel understood and not pathologized. I also incorporate practical tools when needed — grounding skills, cognitive reframing, somatic awareness, and real-life behavioral strategies — always adapting the method to the client’s personality, trauma history, and goals. After many years working with trauma survivors, refugees, corporate professionals, and individuals navigating identity, relationships, and anxiety, I’ve learned that this method works best when it honors both emotional depth and the client’s lived context. Ultimately, I use this treatment method to help clients reconnect with their own resilience, find clarity, and move toward a life that feels more authentic, stable, and meaningful
My experience with ACT is both professional and deeply personal — it aligns with how I’ve worked with my own mind for many years: using mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, and creativity to stay present, make meaning, and move toward a more authentic life. In my practice, I use ACT to help clients develop a different relationship with their thoughts and feelings — not fighting or suppressing them, but observing them with compassion and curiosity. Many of the individuals I work with carry significant stress, grief, or shame, and ACT provides a grounding framework for helping them notice their internal experience without becoming overwhelmed by it. Together, we explore values, clarify what truly matters to them, and take small, meaningful steps toward living in alignment with those values. I draw heavily on mindfulness, imagery, and metaphor — approaches that resonate with clients who feel stuck in cognitive loops or perfectionistic patterns. ACT allows me to meet them where they are emotionally, while gently expanding their capacity to sit with discomfort, create distance from intrusive thoughts, and reconnect with their inner resilience. Whether I’m working with corporate professionals under high stress, individuals recovering from trauma, or clients seeking more purpose and self-understanding, ACT helps create a path forward that honors both acceptance and actionable change.
My approach to psychoanalytic therapy is informed by both extensive clinical experience and years of working on my own internal world with honesty, curiosity, and depth. I’m trained in contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, and I incorporate this framework to help clients understand the emotional patterns, unconscious beliefs, and early relational experiences that continue to shape their lives. In practice, I use psychoanalytic principles to slow things down and create a space where clients can safely explore what lies beneath their anxiety, shame, burnout, or repetitive relational cycles. I pay close attention to the nuances of language, emotion, and the therapeutic relationship itself — how a client feels in the room, what defenses emerge, and what deeper needs or fears might be seeking expression. This method is particularly powerful for clients who have complex trauma histories, perfectionism, or long-standing internal conflicts. My style is collaborative, warm, and attuned. I don’t analyze from a distance; instead, I help clients gently uncover the unconscious narratives driving their behavior while building the capacity to sit with and metabolize difficult emotions. Working with transference and countertransference allows us to illuminate patterns that may be invisible in everyday life but show up clearly in the therapeutic relationship. Ultimately, psychoanalytic therapy allows clients to understand not only what they’re feeling, but why — giving them the freedom to step out of old roles, loosen rigid defenses, and move toward a life guided by authenticity rather than survival strategies.
I use Solution-Focused Brief Therapy regularly, especially in fast-paced environments such as corporate EAP work and my years supporting military and defense personnel. Many clients I work with are under acute stress, facing time-sensitive decisions, or navigating complex workplace, family, or crisis situations. SFBT allows me to help them orient quickly toward stabilization, clarity, and achievable next steps without overwhelming them. My experience with SFBT is rooted in meeting clients where they are in the moment — identifying what is working, strengthening existing resilience, and focusing on actionable solutions. In high-pressure settings, individuals often benefit from concrete strategies that can be implemented immediately. Through targeted questions, scaling techniques, and future-oriented reframing, I help clients define realistic goals, recognize their own strengths, and move toward meaningful, manageable change. Across corporate, military, and clinical settings, I’ve found that SFBT provides clients with a sense of agency during moments when they feel stuck, anxious, or depleted. It complements deeper therapeutic work by offering structure and momentum, helping clients take the first steps toward growth, stability, or improved performance. Whether someone is dealing with burnout, conflict, leadership pressure, or acute emotional distress, SFBT helps me guide them toward practical, empowering pathways forward
Humanistic therapy is at the core of how I relate to clients. My work — whether in trauma settings, corporate environments, humanitarian contexts, or long-term psychotherapy — is grounded in the belief that people grow when they feel truly seen, valued, and respected. I draw strongly from humanistic principles such as unconditional positive regard, authenticity, and the inherent capacity for self-directed healing. In practice, I use a humanistic approach to create an emotionally safe and non-judgmental space where clients can explore who they are beneath the expectations, defenses, and survival roles they’ve had to adopt. Many of the individuals I support — including trauma survivors, corporate professionals under pressure, refugees, and people navigating identity or relationship challenges — benefit from a therapeutic relationship that honors their dignity, autonomy, and lived experience. My style is warm, collaborative, and deeply empathic. I listen with presence, help clients connect with their emotions, and support them in clarifying what matters to them at a core, human level. Humanistic therapy allows me to combine depth with compassion — helping clients rediscover their inner resilience, reconnect with meaning, and move toward a life aligned with their values and authentic self