(she/her)
New to Grow
I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) with a Master's in Counseling Psychology and a specialization in Expressive Arts Therapy. I provide Trauma-Informed care to individual adults and couples residing in the state of California. I have been practicing since 2015, and have experience in hospital, private practice, and community mental health settings working with a wide range of populations. I believe my creativity and comprehensive training have been invaluable assets in supporting clients from all walks of life as they work to achieve their unique therapeutic goals.
In the first session, we will complete a detailed mental health, substance use, and psychosocial history which will give me an idea of your lived experience, and how it may be impacting your current life challenges. Together, we will use this information to co-create a set of treatment goals that will provide a framework for our work moving forward.
I hold a very genuine unconditional positive regard for all of my clients and believe all clients have within them the strengths and tools to create the life they wish to lead. I believe I am here to facilitate and gently guide that process. All parts of you are welcome in my therapy room, without judgement. I deeply listen, and work to build a strong rapport with my clients that allows them to feel safe and supported in the therapeutic relationship. I will often infuse our time together with humor, creativity, and offerings or insights to support you in deepening your awareness, restoring emotional and relational balance, and achieving an overall sense of ease and wellbeing.
I provide compassionate, trauma-informed, strength-based services for clients experiencing mood disorders, anxiety, relationship challenges, grief and loss, life transitions, aging, chronic or terminal illness, as well as clients who have experienced acute, complex, developmental, medical, or historical trauma. I offer support and provide a safe space for marginalized communities, including LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, non-monogamous/non-traditional relationships, and persons with disabilities.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I have used ACT with clients as a framework for acknowledging that current emotions/behaviors are appropriate responses and adaptations to stressful or traumatic life situations. This allows us to hold compassion for our own emotional experience, and commit to taking steps for lasting change.
Attachment-based
Our earliest relationship attachments often shape our behavior in relationships later in life. Attachment-Based Therapy provides a framework for understanding the relationship between early-life attachments and current relationship dynamics.
Trauma Informed Care
Trauma is extreme stress or distress, and most people have experienced some form of trauma in their lives. Trauma may be acute, chronic, complex, medical, or historical in nature. It is vital to understand a client's experience of trauma and how it has impacted their nervous system, their emotional responses, and how it has shaped a client's current thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Deepening awareness of a client's trauma, their triggers, and their automatic responses to these triggers can help a client more effectively manage reactivity and responses in future stressful situations.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
CBT explores the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and uses interventions to help clients track their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in various situations. CBT helps clients identify negative beliefs and automatic thought patterns about oneself, others, the future, or the world. CBT engages the client in interventions aimed at tracking and challenging those automatic thoughts in an effort to foster healthier coping strategies and patterns in the future.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
DBT helps clients to learn skills for coping with overwhelming or negative emotions and situations. DBT helps clients improve their relationships, reduce self-harm, and reduce behaviors that are harmful or self-destructive. DBT helps clients identify and accept their difficult feelings, and integrates mindfulness-based techniques in support of that goal. Make positive changes: DBT helps people make positive changes in their lives. Learn new skills: DB