Licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and accepts 13 insurances. Specializes in Addiction, Mood Disorders, Trauma and PTSD and 10 more.
(he/him)
New to Grow
I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Pennsylvania, a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor (CADC), with additional certification as a Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP). I hold a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Gannon University and have over six years of clinical experience across inpatient, partial hospitalization, IOP, and outpatient settings. I specialize in trauma and addiction, and also regularly work with grief, anxiety, and depression.
The first session is focused on understanding what brought you to therapy and what you're hoping to get out of it. We'll talk through your history, current concerns, and goals, and begin shaping a plan together. I aim to create a space that feels grounded and non-judgmental, where you can be honest about where you are without needing to have it all figured out first.
I take a trauma-informed, collaborative approach that treats the nervous system as central to healing, not incidental to it. I draw on Internal Family Systems, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, existential and experiential work, and motivational interviewing, adapting to what each client needs rather than applying a single method across the board. My goal is not only to reduce symptoms, but to help clients build a clearer sense of who they are and more room to make intentional choices in their lives.
I work primarily with adults and older adolescents, though clients under 14 are considered on a case-by-case basis and require active parental involvement. My experience spans a wide range of presentations and acuity levels, from individuals stepping down from inpatient psychiatric care to those navigating everyday stress, relationship challenges, and major life transitions. I'm well-positioned to serve clients managing substance use disorders, trauma and PTSD, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, codependency, anger management, and co-occurring mental health and substance use concerns. I'm comfortable with high-acuity clients who may have a history of hospitalization, suicidal ideation, or complex trauma. I don't shy away from the heavy stuff. I also work well with clients who are "high-functioning but struggling"; people who look put together on the outside but feel like they're barely holding it together internally. My approach is direct, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that people don't need to be fixed but need space to be seen, challenged, and supported as they make their own changes. I thrive with clients who value honesty and are open to exploring the uncomfortable stuff, because that’s often where the real movement happens.
I use ACT to help clients build a different relationship with their internal experience rather than trying to eliminate it. Most people arrive in therapy convinced that anxiety, grief, intrusive thoughts, or cravings are obstacles to overcome before life can begin. ACT reframes this as these experiences are part of being human, and the work is not about getting rid of them but about being able to move toward what matters with those experiences present. Together we identify your values, notice the patterns of avoidance or fusion that have pulled you away from them, and build the psychological flexibility to act in line with who you actually want to be. This is especially useful in addiction work, where so much energy has gone into avoiding internal experience, and in trauma work, where contact with present-moment values can begin to compete with the gravitational pull of the past.
The humanistic frame is the foundation everything else rests on for me. I work from the assumption that you are the expert on your own life, that meaningful change comes from a relationship in which you feel genuinely seen, and that my job is not to fix you or steer you toward a predetermined outcome. I am not the all-knowing authority and you are not a problem to be solved. The work happens in honest contact between two people, one of whom happens to be trained in this. I bring warmth, directness, and a willingness to sit with whatever is actually happening rather than what either of us wishes were happening. The relationship itself is the intervention as much as anything else I do.
Trauma-informed care means the entire therapeutic environment is organized around the reality that many of my clients have survived experiences that shaped how their nervous system now operates. I never assume readiness, never push past a window of tolerance, and treat your sense of control over the process as foundational rather than incidental. When clients are working on specific traumatic memories or trauma-related cognitions, I draw on Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) — psychoeducation about trauma responses, identifying and shifting the meaning-making that traumatic events imposed, gradual exposure when appropriate, and skills for managing trauma reminders. The TF-CBT structure is most useful when there is a clear traumatic event or events to work with; the broader trauma-informed approach holds the whole frame.
Somatic work recognizes that trauma, addiction, anxiety, and depression do not only live in the mind, they live in the body, in the nervous system, in patterns of breath, posture, tension, and shutdown that often pre-date conscious thought. In session this might look like helping you notice what is happening in your body as we talk, slowing down to track sensation when something significant arises, building capacity to tolerate activation without leaving your body, or working with the cycles of mobilization and rest that the nervous system actually runs on. I do not push for somatic experience or treat it as the only legitimate path; for many clients it becomes useful gradually, as language reaches the limits of what cognition can resolve on its own.