New to Grow
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist dedicated to helping individuals find strength and resilience through life’s challenges. I have extensive experience working with people in crisis, survivors of trauma, and those facing complex mental health issues, and I’m here to provide a safe, compassionate space where we can work together to achieve our goals. My approach is collaborative and tailored to your unique needs, and I look forward to supporting you on your journey toward healing and growth. I create a warm, compassionate space where you feel seen, heard, and supported. I blend CBT, DBT, trauma-informed care, and Solution-Focused Therapy to help you build resilience, regulate emotions, and uncover strengths. My goal is to foster a collaborative relationship where you feel genuinely cared for and confident in your path forward.
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
In our first session, clients can expect a welcoming, open space where they’re encouraged to share their reasons for seeking therapy and any goals or concerns they may have. I’ll ask questions to understand their background and current challenges, helping us establish a foundation of trust and clarity about their needs. Together, we’ll explore what they hope to achieve through therapy, and I’ll explain how we might approach their goals. This initial session is a time to get to know each other and begin creating a supportive, collaborative path forward.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
Some of my greatest strengths is my communication style which is compassionate, direct, and adaptive to each client’s needs. I aim to create a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients feel comfortable expressing themselves openly. I’m attentive and actively listen to ensure that I truly understand each client’s perspective, while also providing honest and constructive feedback that fosters growth and self-awareness.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
My focus is on individuals and couples facing a wide range of challenges, including trauma recovery, relationship issues, and mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. I work with adults and adolescents from diverse backgrounds, including those in crisis, survivors of domestic violence, and individuals managing severe mental health concerns. My goal is to meet clients where they are and support them in building resilience, improving relationships, and enhancing emotional well-being. I approach goal setting as a collaborative process, ensuring each goal aligns with your values, needs, and vision for change. Together, we explore what meaningful progress looks like, breaking down larger objectives into achievable steps. We track progress and celebrate small victories, creating a path toward lasting, empowering change.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I am deeply familiar with the core premise of CBT: that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, and by changing distorted or unhelpful thought patterns, we can achieve healthier emotional and behavioral outcomes. I have worked with different populations provided essential care. I can identify and explain common cognitive distortions when a user describes a thought pattern. I can then provide a clear definition of the distortion and suggest CBT-based techniques for challenging it. One of the goals of CBT therapy is to identify and change irrational, inaccurate, or unhelpful Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) into more realistic, balanced, and adaptive thoughts. I work to change these thoughts, and the emotional and behavioral consequences that follow.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
I am familiar with the core components and principles of DBT, which was originally developed to initially treat Borderline Personality Disorder. I have worked in many clinical settings with clients suffering for BPD, PTSD, and other disorders. The use of DBT has helping me manage client care by supporting people who have disorders characterized by emotional dysregulation. I use DBT principles in practice helping clients explore the balance between acceptance and change. If a user is stuck in rigid thinking, I can prompt them to consider the opposite perspective or look for the "both/and" solution (the synthesis) rather than the "either/or." Distress tolerance is where I help users by understanding, naming and changing emotional responses. I openly use mindfulness which is focusing attention on the present situation, non-judgmentally.
Solution Focused Brief Treatment
I have used Solution Focused Brief Treatment and incorporated it into many different client populations. The core tenets of SFBT, which emphasizes a client's current and future solutions rather than past problems or deficits. The miracle question is used in the first phase of therapy sessions to help the user vividly describe their desired future state, shifting the focus away from the problem and toward the solution. I use scaling questions later to make goals concrete, measurable, and focuses the user on the next small, attainable step. My responses are designed to be affirmative and reinforcing, validating the user's efforts and strength. My focus is to rapidly generate and guide users through the highly structured, future-oriented, and strengths-based questions characteristic of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.