LCSW, 16 years of experience
Hi there! I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in Connecticut. I received my Master's in Social Work from Southern CT State University and have been practicing for 16 years. I help adults struggling with depression, anxiety, stress/burnout, and generally "feeling stuck" change the way they see themselves, others, the world and their future. My approach incorporates concepts from Mindfulness-based and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) best-practices, helping clients learn skills to enhance self-awareness and create opportunities for change that are values-aligned and sustainable.
In our first session together, we'll start with brief introductions, then dive into the specific challenges you're facing. This will help me create a tailored plan for us to work through in follow-up sessions. We'll also discuss the importance of homework, or what I've come to call "SPiRL" assignments (AKA "Skills Practice in Real Life"). These may include listening to a podcast, watching a TedTalk, reading an article, journaling or use of worksheets in between sessions, which we can review and process at subsequent visits. My goal isn't to fill your toolbox with coping skills, but to help empower you to create new habits in the way you think and show up in the world!
My empathy, clinical intuition, and ability to shift my perspective objectively have served as unique strengths in my career, allowing me to connect with and better understand very personal and unique struggles of my clients regardless of their age, demographics, history, etc. Clients have offered feedback about feeling genuinely understood and being able to shift their own perspective towards intentional actions as a result. By zooming out of our own personal story, can we only begin to see the forest through the trees.
I specialize in working with adults diagnosed with Major Depressive, Anxiety and other-related mood disorders (i.e. OCD and Bipolar D/O). My clients have described me as "very down to earth," passionate, compassionate and non-judgmental. I'm genuinely fascinated by peoples' life stories, the inner-workings of the mind and nerd-out to research in neuroscience and benefits of mindfulness-based practices. Clinically speaking, I often describe myself as relaxed/informal (without compromising professionalism, of course), personable, yet direct, with a good sense of humor. I'm not a talk-therapist, but rather a skills-based therapist, and take pride in my ability to be straightforward with my clients (not "sugar-coating") without judgment, in order to bolster accountability. I am also a storyteller and have found appropriate self-disclosure and transparency about my own journey learning and applying these concepts as essential for developing a safe, trusting relationship with my clients to initiate the process for sustainable change.
My passion for human connection, natural curiosity for how we think as humans and formal training from The Beck Institute in 2016 have made me skillful as a Cognitive Behavior Therapist. I have extensive experience using CBT in IOP/OP group settings, along with couples and individuals in private practice. In 2021 was recruited by the Yale Depression Research Program as a study therapist for a 3-year clinical trial using CBT with adults diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression who were also receiving an acute series of ketamine treatments. The results for many participants I worked with were nothing short of transformational. Bringing awareness to patterns of unhelpful thinking, deep-rooted "schemas" or beliefs we hold about ourselves, others and the world, and making small adjustments to our daily habits that better-align with our values and aspirations are some of the core concepts you can expect to learn in our sessions. With self-awareness and regular skills-practice over time, you'll be able to notice some of these unhelpful patterns of cognition (thought) and behavior in real-time, diffusing yourself from the emotional turmoil and thereby creating a "choice-point." Herein lies the difference between "reacting" versus "responding" to typically triggering situations, a skill many clients (as well as myself) have described as having a superpower!
7 ratings with written reviews
July 8, 2025
I'm very comfortable with her and not as anxious when I talk to her like I was the first time. I like it a lot that she gives me homework and that she is an animal lover as well!!
June 4, 2025
I appreciate how down to earth Christina is. This alone makes it really easy to make connections and talk about things. She seems very knowledgeable in her field and passionate about the relationship between societal changes and what makes people tick.
May 2, 2025
What brought me to her was her out of the box way of doing things and the fact that she will give me some sort of homework at times! I like her attitude, the way she acts, how she speaks and even though I was anxious the whole time it was easy to talk to her!! I've only had 1 session with her so far but I think she's awesome!!