Licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in Trauma and PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and 10 more.
(he/him)
New to Grow
I tend to work best with people who want to understand themselves more deeply, including why they keep getting stuck in the same patterns even when they know those patterns are not working for them. I spent most of my career in community mental health, working with people from a wide range of backgrounds and with a wide range of problems. My approach is relational and psychodynamic, so I’m interested in how your past experiences, relationships, and the world around you have shaped who you are today. I’m not a therapist who is going to give you a worksheet for every problem. I listen closely, ask a lot of questions, and will challenge you when I think it might be helpful. I take therapy seriously, but I’m not especially formal, and humor tends to find its way into the work.
Our first session is a chance for me to get to know you and for you to get a sense of what it’s like to talk with me. I’ll ask about what brought you to therapy, what has been going on in your life, and some of the experiences that have shaped you. There are some questions I need to ask everyone, but I try not to make the first session feel like an interview. You don’t need to know exactly what you want to work on or have your whole story figured out. We’ll start wherever you are and begin figuring it out together.
I think one of my biggest strengths as a therapist is curiosity. I’m genuinely interested in people and in understanding how they came to be who they are. I’m comfortable sitting with difficult emotions and complicated situations without rushing to find an easy answer or trying to turn everything into a problem that needs to be fixed. I also bring nearly a decade of experience working with people with very different backgrounds, identities, and life experiences. I pay close attention to patterns, relationships, and the things that may be happening beneath the surface, while still keeping therapy grounded in what is actually going on in your life.
I tend to work best with people who are curious about themselves and want to understand why they feel, think, or relate to others the way they do. You might be dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship difficulties, or feeling stuck in patterns that you understand intellectually but still can’t seem to change. You don’t need to come into therapy knowing exactly what is wrong or what you want to work on. I especially enjoy working with people who are open to looking beneath the surface and seeing where the conversation takes us.
I pay attention to how your early relationships may have shaped the ways you experience closeness, trust, conflict, and vulnerability in relationships today. We can explore these patterns together, including how they may show up in the therapy relationship itself, and work toward developing different ways of relating to yourself and others.
I try to understand you within the context of your culture, identity, family, community, and lived experiences rather than assuming that everyone experiences the world in the same way. I’m also mindful of how differences between us may shape the therapy relationship, and I’m open to talking about those differences directly when they matter.
I use a psychodynamic approach to help you understand the patterns, relationships, and past experiences that continue to shape how you feel and relate to others today. I pay attention to what comes up in our conversations, including patterns that may develop between us, and use that to help us understand what might be happening beneath the surface.
I see therapy as something we do together, rather than something I do to you. I try to be engaged and present in the room, and I pay attention to what happens in the relationship between us. How you experience me, and how we relate to each other over time, can help us better understand patterns that may also show up in your relationships outside of therapy.
I use Prolonged Exposure Therapy with people who are struggling with PTSD and trauma-related symptoms. PE is a structured, evidence-based treatment that helps you gradually approach memories, situations, and emotions you may have been avoiding because of trauma. I work collaboratively and at a pace that is challenging but manageable, with the goal of helping the trauma have less control over your life.