Welcome! I provide a safe space for those who are experiencing negative thoughts and feelings that impact their daily lives as well as their relationships with partners, family, friends, colleagues, and peers. After years of working as a social worker in hospice care and retirement communities, I have developed a passion for working with adults of all ages understand their internal and external responses to a variety of factors including life transitions, loss of loved ones, caregiver stress, family dynamics, and unprocessed trauma.
We will have a discussion to understand why you are seeking therapy and what your hopes and expectations are. This will help us navigate your short-term and long-term goals, and will naturally lay out the foundation for our therapeutic relationship.
During our sessions, I will encourage you to guide our conversations while I occasionally interject with questions and observations, not only to gain additional insight on both our parts, but also to help you consider your experiences from different perspectives which can often lead to better understanding of yourself and your environment, and be steps towards your goals. Over time, I will work with you to develop coping techniques and personalized tools that can provide relief for the issues that are weighing down on you. I will occasionally assign exercises that you can incorporate into your routine until we reconnect which can help you become more attuned with yourself and those around you in different ways than before your therapy journey. Therapy can be daunting for many individuals; this is completely normal and understandable, and we will work towards your goals at a pace that works best for you.
Whether you're 18 or 81, I work with those who are experiencing changes in their lives or relationships, or are exposed to certain situations, that can lead to complex reactions such as grief, anxiety, overwhelm, stress, depression, and compulsive and impulsive behaviors. I look forward to hearing your personal experiences, and helping you understand who you are, who you want to be, and getting you to that place.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are believed to be interconnected, and without being aware of our individual thought-feeling-behavior patterns, we can feel like we lose control when we find ourselves in certain negative situations. I encourage my clients to tune in to their internal reflections and physical sensations when they are in such situations to better understand how they react. From there, we will work together to better understand *why* they react as they do and then develop stronger personal insight and coping skills to alter behaviors, thoughts, and in time, even feelings.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
When thoughts and feelings cannot be altered despite the efforts made through CBT, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can be incorporated to help you accept your thoughts and emotions as they are while committing to making changes in your behaviors and your life to be closer to the version that you want it to be.
Grief Therapy
Grief is one of the most universal and yet misunderstood human experiences. All people have had someone or something that they have loved and lost and have had to continue on with that hard-to-describe feeling of having and then not having, or being and then not being. Understanding your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors - and identifying them as a response to grief - helps my clients feel ownership of their grief and develop tools that they can use to not necessarily move on *from* grief, but to move on *with* grief.
Strength-Based
All people have strengths that are the building blocks of who we are and how we connect to others, but sometimes it's hard to see those qualities in ourselves and truly love ourselves for them. By working together, I will help you discover your own strengths and use your findings to empower yourself and alter your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to improve your life and relationships.
Couples Counseling
Communication breakdown, shifts in our environments, emotionally developing at different rates, changes in personal values... there are many reasons why couples seek counseling. I have sometimes found that my coupled clients, especially those who have been married for several decades, can become so used to the patterns of behavior and communication in their relationship that a third-party is helpful in facilitating difficult conversations and navigating the roots of their conflict. Understanding each partners' current wants and needs and modifying how we communicate, collaborate, and compromise with each other are just some of the few tools that you will be able to work on together as you enter a new chapter in your partnership.