(she/her)
New to Grow
Hi, I'm Beth. I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Doctorate in Social Work and over two decades of experience working alongside people navigating some of life's most complex moments, including questions of identity, relationships, mental health, grief, and the kind of transitions that can shake your sense of who you are and where you're headed. I'm originally from New Orleans and have called San Diego home for over 20 years. Most of my career here has been rooted in LGBTQ communities, and I bring that lens of affirmation, cultural humility, and genuine respect for the full complexity of human experience into every therapeutic relationship. I believe you are the expert on your own life, and my job is to help you access the clarity, strength, and tools that are already within you. I tend to be warm, direct, collaborative, and yes, funny. I'm not a blank-screen therapist. You can expect me to be present, engaged, and occasionally willing to gently challenge you when I think it will help. Therapy can be hard work, and I believe there's real value in laughter along the way. Whether you're working through something specific or just know that something needs to shift, I'd love to talk about whether we might be a good fit.
The first session is really about getting to know each other. I'll ask about what brought you in, what's been going on, and what you're hoping therapy might help with, but I'm not going to pepper you with a rigid intake checklist. Conversation flows more naturally than that. I'll also want to know a little about your life more broadly, your relationships, your history, what gives you energy and what drains it. Context matters, and I'm interested in you as a whole person, not just the problem you came in to solve. You should also expect to get a sense of who I am. I'm an active, engaged presence in the room, so the first session will give you a real feel for my style and whether it works for you. I want you to leave with enough information to make a genuine decision about whether we're a good fit, because that fit matters more than anything else. By the end of our first session, we'll have a shared sense of what you're working toward and a beginning idea of how we might get there. You won't leave with homework or a diagnosis. You'll leave having been heard, and that's a pretty good place to start.
A few things set my work apart. First, I bring a genuinely integrated skill set. My training spans clinical social work, behavioral health, crisis intervention, leadership, and program design and evaluation. I've spent my career in complex, high-stakes environments where I had to be both relationally skilled and practically effective. That combination means I can hold the emotional depth of therapy while also helping clients move toward real, concrete change. Second, I lead with affirmation and cultural humility, especially with LGBTQ clients and others who have experienced marginalization. I don't need you to explain or justify who you are. We start from there and build. Third, I'm not neutral to the point of being invisible. I have a point of view, I'm willing to share it when it's useful, and I bring warmth and humor into the work because I think that's part of what makes therapy actually feel like something worth showing up for. Finally, I pay attention to what's working, not just what isn't. Most people arrive in therapy having already survived hard things and developed real strengths along the way. Part of my job is helping you see that clearly and build on it, rather than spending all of our time focused on what's broken. The clients I work with tend to feel genuinely seen, not just assessed. That's what I care most about getting right.
I am best positioned to serve clients who have felt unseen, misunderstood, or pathologized by systems that were not built with them in mind. Much of my career has been rooted in LGBTQ communities, and I have a particular depth of experience with queer and trans individuals navigating identity, relationships, family acceptance, and the cumulative weight of living in a world that doesn't always affirm who they are. I work well with clients who are ready to explore change but may feel ambivalent or don't quite know where to start. I'm also a good fit for people who've had frustrating therapy experiences in the past and want a clinician who leads with curiosity rather than assumptions. My practice draws on backgrounds in behavioral health and crisis work, so I'm comfortable sitting with clients who are managing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, or life transitions that feel destabilizing. I tend to connect well with clients who want a collaborative, direct therapeutic relationship, people who are interested in understanding themselves more deeply and building on what's already working, not just cataloging what's hard. I especially enjoy working with adults who are in the middle of figuring something out: their identity, a major life change, a relationship, a sense of purpose. You don't have to arrive with everything sorted. Showing up and being willing is enough.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use CBT to help clients understand the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, particularly when anxiety, depression, or trauma responses are driving patterns that feel stuck. I tend to apply CBT in an integrative way, pairing cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation with the relational and strengths-based elements that I think are essential for lasting change. I find it especially effective when clients are ready to get curious about their internal experiences and want concrete tools to work with between sessions.
Gender-affirming therapy
Gender-affirming care has been central to my practice throughout my career. I work from the position that clients are the experts on their own gender identity and expression, and my role is to provide a space that is unconditionally affirming, never diagnostic or gatekeeping in orientation. I have experience supporting clients through social transition, navigating family and community dynamics, accessing gender-affirming medical care, and processing the grief, joy, and complexity that can come with that journey.
Strength-Based
A strength-based lens is really the foundation of how I approach all of my clinical work. Having practiced within the LGBTQ community and other underserved communities for many years, I've seen how often clients arrive having internalized a narrative that something is wrong with them. I work actively to counter that by identifying and naming the resilience, creativity, and capacity clients already carry, and building the therapeutic relationship on that foundation rather than on deficits.
Motivational Interviewing
I've used Motivational Interviewing throughout my clinical career, particularly with clients who are ambivalent about change or navigating substance use, health behaviors, or major life decisions. I draw on MI's core spirit of collaboration and evocation, helping clients explore their own values and reasons for change rather than directing them toward a predetermined outcome. In practice, this looks like a lot of reflective listening, open-ended exploration, and meeting people exactly where they are.
Solution Focused Brief Treatment
SFBT has been a natural fit for much of my work, especially in settings where clients needed to see movement and build momentum quickly. I use solution-focused techniques to help clients identify what's already working in their lives, clarify what they want things to look like, and build on existing strengths and resources. I find the "exceptions" framework particularly powerful, as it shifts the conversation from problem saturation to possibility.