Licensed to practice in 2 states and accepts 57 insurances. Specializes in ADHD, LGBTQ, Trauma and PTSD and 10 more.
(he/him)
Clients say this provider is
Hi, I'm Dan (he/him), a licensed psychologist practicing in Pittsburgh's East End. I provide therapy for individuals, couples, and families, addressing a wide range of concerns. In addition to general practice, I specialize in creating a safe and affirming space for the LGBTQIA+ community. I also specialize in working with neurodivergent clients (ADHD, autism, OCD). I'm also passionate about exploring the connection between mental health and the environment (ecopsychology), and helping clients navigate the emotional challenges of climate change (climate-aware psychotherapy).
I like to start by asking, "When did you decide to start looking for a therapist?" From there I'll have some follow-up questions to help me understand the nature of the presenting problem and your personal goals for therapy. You are welcome at any time to ask about my policies, therapeutic approach, or other aspects of establishing care. We can then explore your concerns further with some gentle follow-up questions. Feel free to ask anything about my approach, experience, or anything else on your mind. By the end of the first session, I want you to feel like you have the information you need to judge for yourself whether we will be a good fit as therapist and client.
Here's how I think about what therapy is: psychotherapy is when one person speaks as openly as possible and another person listens as closely as possible, and then they keep with it for a while, knowing that somewhere in between speaking and listening, the healing takes place. For my clients to speak as openly as possible, and for me to listen as closely as possible, my first priority in session is to create and protect a secure, predictable structure for our conversations, what therapists call "holding the frame." This includes maintaining client privacy and confidentiality, as well as making the room physically comfortable. It also includes intangibles like warmth, openness, trust, and rapport. Beyond the craft itself, what sets my approach apart is the range of settings I've practiced in: hospital clinics, college counseling centers, an intensive outpatient program for suicidal teens and young adults, and several years of community mental health in rural Vermont, working with a highly diverse clientele across ability, background, and need. My doctoral training went beyond psychotherapy into neuropsychology and forensic psychology, which helps me keep my clients informed about their options in treatment in the short, medium, and long terms.
Many of my clients come to me looking for general support with managing stress, strengthening motivation and focus in everyday life, and exploring who they are. We can work on strengthening relationships, healing from past difficulties, and understanding attachment needs and anxieties. For LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples, and families, I create a safe and affirming space where you can explore your identity, overcome challenges, and build resilience. We can work on healing from specific experiences, reconciling with family, and navigating the intersection of faith and identity. I also offer maintenance care sessions to manage ongoing mental health concerns in a welcoming environment. Climate change is in the news a lot these days, and it's increasingly showing up in mental health research as a stress factor that can take a toll on our well-being. Maybe you have been holding onto stress and worry about the planet without having a dedicated space to process it all. I specialize in helping clients cope with "climate stress" – anxiety, sleep issues, and feelings of guilt or grief related to the environment. We can work on managing these symptoms, maintaining healthy routines, and finding fulfillment in taking positive action for a better future. If you see yourself reflected in any of the above, I welcome you to get in touch.
Cash - $180 per session
Aetna
Aetna - Allied Benefits
Aetna - ASR Health Benefits
Aetna - Lucent Health
Aetna - Luminare
Aetna - Medicare
Aetna - Moda
Aetna - WebTPA
Aetna – HealthEZ
All Savers
Amerihealth
Amerihealth Administrators
Amerihealth NJ Medicare Advantage
Arlo
AvMed
Blue Care Network
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Blue Cross Blue Shield - Federal
Blue Cross Blue Shield - Medicare
Capital Blue Cross
Capital Blue Cross - Medicare
Centivo
Cigna
Cigna - HealthEZ
EAP:Cigna
EAP:Evernorth
EAP:UnitedHealthcare/Optum
Evernorth
Geisinger - Commercial
Geisinger - Medicare
Geisinger – Dual (Geisinger Gold HMO D-SNP)
Golden Rule
GTEB
Harvard Pilgrim/UnitedHealthcare
Highmark
Highmark - Medicare
Humana - Medicare
Humana Dual (Medicare & Medicaid)
Independence Administrators
Independence Blue Cross
Independence Keystone 65 HMO
Independence Personal Choice 65 PPO
Optum
OptumHealth Complex Medical Conditions
Oscar
Oxford
Surest (formerly Bind)
Tufts Health/Cigna
United Medical Resources
UnitedHealthcare Complete Care (C-SNP)
UnitedHealthcare Dual (Medicare & Medicaid)
UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance
UnitedHealthcare Shared Services
UnitedHealthcare StudentResources
UnitedHealthcare/Optum
UnitedHealthcare/Optum - Medicare
UPMC Health Plan
ACT combines mindfulness-based strategies with values clarification and committed action. The "acceptance" piece in ACT doesn't mean giving up or resigning yourself to pain ("There's nothing I can do, so what's the point?"). It means making room for difficult thoughts and feelings instead of spending your energy fighting them. You reclaim that energy so it's free to go somewhere more useful. For example, one common question in ACT is: "If struggling with this thought or feeling weren't the problem, what would you be doing right now?" The "commitment" piece in ACT means making deliberate choices (personal commitments, commitments to yourself) about how to use that newly freed-up energy. ACT helps build the skills for making personal commitments to concrete action plans, aligned with what actually matters (core values), even while the difficult thoughts and feelings are still present. In other words: our problems are not larger than us. We are larger than our problems. They're less like walls in our way, more like weather passing through.
The two methods I use most often in therapy are CBT and EFT. When I'm explaining CBT to a new client, sometimes I'll ask, "Between your thoughts, feelings, and actions, which one do you feel like you have the most control over? Which one is the least controllable?" I tend to get a wide range of responses in return. Some people say thoughts are easiest to control, others say actions, others say feelings. And there's no right answer, of course. It's more to help people understand the basic idea behind CBT, which is that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all connected to each other, which means if we focus on changing one, the other two will follow. CBT techniques focus specifically on changing thoughts and behaviors because it's easier to define, observe, and measure them, compared to feelings.
I use EFT to provide therapy for couples, families, and individuals. The science of EFT is grounded in attachment theory, which is one of the prevailing theories in psychological science about what makes it easier or harder for people to build close, secure relationships from childhood through into adulthood. EFT focuses on helping people more effectively perceive, understand, and communicate their emotions and attachment needs. Common goals my clients bring to this work include clarifying what they need from the people closest to them, managing attachment anxiety, and understanding their own attachment style. EFT inspires me to believe that when we can accept the challenge of sitting more deeply with our most difficult, complex, or distressing emotions, we're that much closer to discovering new ways of sharing our emotional lives with the people around us. This, in turn, helps us feel that much more human, more well-connected, more like we belong.
The majority of my clients are seeking and receiving trauma-informed therapy. There are various clinical modalities for providing trauma therapy. I describe myself as providing "trauma-informed care" because I think working on trauma in therapy does not belong to any one specific modality, and in practice, most of my clients will benefit from my ability to draw on multiple theories of psychological trauma. One of the essential bodies of knowledge I rely on is interpersonal neurobiology. Interpersonal neurobiology looks at how our brains develop and change through relationships with other people, not in isolation. From this view, many symptoms of trauma reflect patterns that were shaped by difficult or dangerous relational experiences, which means new, safer relational experiences, including the relationship between client and therapist, have real power to reshape those patterns and support healing. Another essential body of knowledge is polyvagal theory. The word "polyvagal" refers to the concept that the vagus nerve (a cranial nerve that every mammal has, including humans) has multiple branches (hence the "poly" in polyvagal). Each branch of the vagus nerve has evolved to specialize in different survival functions, depending on the threat level in our environment. Polyvagal therapy approaches psychological trauma with two big goals in mind: one, to help people develop more specific and effective coping strategies for the day-to-day impacts of trauma, and two, to create opportunities for deeper, more compassionate ways of understanding the difficulty and duration of the recovery process.
I specialize in therapy for LGBTQIA+ clients, people whose sexual orientation or gender identity falls outside the mainstream. In this line of work, I've provided psychotherapy to individuals, couples, and families. For my clients seeking gender-affirming therapy, some of the most common needs in therapy include: exploring one's sense of self, protecting mental health while coming out, letting go of negative thoughts and feelings that have been internalized throughout life, navigating hard family relationships, healing from trauma, and for clients with religious trauma, finding peace between one's gender, sexuality, and faith. I also work with clients who need ongoing, affirming care for long-term mental health symptoms. I welcome trans and genderqueer clients seeking letters of support for gender-affirming medical care.