LCSW, 40 years of experience
New to Grow
I’m an LCSW with over 40 years of experience helping individuals, couples, and families navigate life’s most challenging transitions. My background includes extensive work in public schools, private practice, trauma-informed care, and decades of supporting people through emotional injuries that began in childhood and echo into their adult relationships. Along with my clinical side, I’m a lifelong published poet whose creative work informs the way I listen and understand people. My creative background shapes the way I listen and understand people—attuned not just to the facts of your story, but to its emotional tone, patterns, and meaning. I bring warmth, directness, and deep respect for personal resilience. Many clients come to me during times of upheaval—breakups, family conflict, identity shifts, grief, anxiety, and major life decisions—and then choose to stay for deeper self-exploration. My role is to help you understand the patterns that shape your life, build emotional clarity, trust your own judgment, and move ahead with greater stability and confidence.
My ideal clients are people who are ready to look beneath the surface, understand the patterns shaping their relationships, and make sense of the emotional wounds carried from childhood or past experiences. They may be navigating anxiety, trauma, identity shifts, relationship challenges, or major life transitions. I work especially well with clients who value directness, warmth, and insight, and who want a space where they can talk honestly, gain clarity, and build a stronger sense of self and direction.
My greatest strengths lie in my ability to listen deeply and help clients uncover the meaning within their experiences. With decades of experience in trauma-informed and psychodynamic work—and a lifelong practice as a poet—I bring a creative, intuitive, and reflective lens to therapy. Clients tell me they appreciate that I’m warm, honest, and fully engaged. I don’t sit silently; I guide, question, and help you make connections that lead to clarity. My goal is to help you understand your patterns, reduce emotional overwhelm, strengthen your self-trust, and move ahead with greater confidence and stability.
My ideal clients are people who want to understand themselves on a deeper level and are drawn to reflection, meaning, and personal growth. Many of the people I work with have carried emotional wounds from childhood or past relationships and are ready to explore how those experiences shaped their adult lives. As both a therapist and a lifelong poet, I work especially well with clients who appreciate insight, creative thinking, and honest conversation. If you’re looking for a therapist who can help you connect the dots, understand your story, and move forward with clarity, we’ll be a good fit.
I use an eclectic approach, drawing from CBT, DBT, ACT, interpersonal psychotherapy, mindfulness, and trauma-informed care. After over 20 years as an LCSW, I’ve learned that no single method fits every person or every moment. I tailor my interventions to each client’s needs — whether that means developing emotional regulation skills, exploring patterns in relationships, or strengthening self-trust. My style is warm, direct, and collaborative.
I use a psychodynamic approach to help clients understand how early experiences, relationships, and emotional wounds continue to shape their current patterns. Together we explore the unconscious beliefs and automatic responses that drive behavior, especially in relationships and moments of stress. My style is warm, attentive, and insight-focused — helping clients make connections, build self-awareness, and develop new ways of responding that support growth, stability, and emotional freedom.
I use a narrative approach to help clients understand and reshape the stories they carry from childhood, past relationships, and difficult life experiences. Together, we look at the patterns that have defined their identity and rewrite those that no longer serve them. This approach is especially helpful for trauma, self-worth, relationship issues, and major life transitions.”
I integrate a compassion-focused approach to help clients reduce self-criticism, calm the nervous system, and develop a kinder, more supportive relationship with themselves. This method is especially helpful for trauma, shame, anxiety, and patterns of people-pleasing or harsh self-judgment. I help clients build emotional safety, strengthen self-trust, and create inner stability.