Licensed to practice in Massachusetts and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in Couples Counseling, Depression, Life Transitions and 2 more.
New to Grow
Often times the therapeutic relationship can be the first time someone experiences true, deep attention, and empathy. Imagine relaxing into a gentle and genuinely curious conversation where I reach to see you in all the ways you want to be seen and understood. My soft, honest curiosity will help me to ease us into exploring your challenges together as a team.
Let's begin our journey together wherever you feel most comfortable and where you want our conversation to start and wherever you want it to go at the pace you want to uncover it. You are the one who is the most important. Your comfort and safety are our compass. We will discover first what your life would look like to you if therapy was a great success and you were feeling better. Everything from there falls naturally into a genuine relationship along a path of joint curiosity - my desire to know you and help you and your desire to be fully seen and known.
Therapy with me is based in more than 10 years of experience and evidence-based methods , and yet, is not prescriptive - it is a real relationship, a warm, patient therapeutic relationship that puts me side by side with you looking at the presenting problem together. Imagine sitting together watching a film, both us together listening to the storyline, getting to know the characters, and synthesizing that together to gain a foothold from where we can begin to imagine other possibilities, other alternative endings for the film, and different ways to relate to and understand the motivations, longings, and shortcomings of the characters.
Spend time with me while I help you hold your angst, despair, confusion, loneliness, fear, worry, panic, and all that overwhelms you in your life right now. Let us find ways to comfort your empty-nest, persistent worry, divorce, low self esteem, grief, family/relationship challenges, work challenges, depression, social anxiety, adjustment to a life transition, agoraphobia or whatever it is that is burdening you and has you feeling like you need someone at your side to help you improve your life.
The Gottman Method while known as a practical, structured approach to couples counseling, more importantly couples considering counseling would be most interested in not the structure but instead the substance of what we will do. We will look at the patterns that happen when you disagree—how conversations get started, what happens when emotions rise, how each person reacts, and why you may end up having the same arguments over and over without really resolving anything. Therapy isn’t just about talking through problems. I’ll teach you specific skills to help you communicate more effectively, handle conflict without hurting the relationship, repair things when a conversation goes badly, and understand what your partner is actually needing from you. We will also spend time on the parts of the relationship that are working—or that may have gotten lost over time—like friendship, affection, appreciation, trust, emotional connection, and feeling like you’re on the same team. The goal isn’t to eliminate disagreement. Every couple disagrees. The goal is to help you disagree in healthier ways, feel heard and understood, and build a relationship that feels closer, safer, and more supportive.
Internal Family Systems therapy is an approach that helps us understand the different reactions, feelings, and patterns we carry within ourselves—and why they developed in the first place. If I asked you to sit down with me and bring some family photo albums, you would present a book and show me all of the people who are part of your life. With internal family systems we look to figuratively look at your internal "people" / "parts" within you and understand what is going on. Most of us have times when one part of us wants one thing and another part wants something completely different. You might know logically that something is okay, for example, but still feel anxious. You might want to trust someone but find yourself pulling away, or want to stop worrying but feel unable to shut your mind off. In that example, your internal family system has and Anxiety Part, a Guarded Part, and a Wants Connection Part. So, rather than seeing those parts and reactions as something that is wrong with you, we get curious about them. Often, behaviors that are causing problems now developed for a good reason at another point in your life. Anxiety might be trying to keep you prepared for danger. Perfectionism might be trying to protect you from criticism or failure. Avoiding something might be your mind’s way of protecting you from feeling overwhelmed. In therapy, we work on understanding those reactions rather than fighting against them. We look at what triggers them, what they are trying to accomplish for you, and what experiences may be underneath them. As you understand them differently, they often become less intense and have less control over what you think, feel, and do. The goal isn’t to get rid of parts of yourself. It’s to help you develop a healthier relationship with all of yourself, so that old fears and protective patterns don’t have to run your life.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is a practical type of therapy that helps you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affect one another. We all develop ways of thinking about ourselves, other people, and situations based on our experiences. Sometimes those thoughts are accurate and helpful, but sometimes we automatically expect the worst, assume we know what someone else is thinking, blame ourselves for things that aren’t entirely our responsibility, or treat something we fear as though it is definitely going to happen. In therapy, we slow that process down and look at what happens in situations that are difficult for you. What went through your mind? What did you feel? What did you do next? And did your response actually help—or did it unintentionally make the problem stronger? We then work on developing more accurate and helpful ways of thinking and responding. That doesn’t mean simply “thinking positively.” Sometimes a situation really is difficult. The goal is to look at it realistically rather than having anxiety, depression, fear, or old beliefs automatically determine how you interpret it. CBT also focuses on behavior. Sometimes changing what you do—facing something you’ve been avoiding, becoming more active when you’re depressed, practicing a new response, setting a boundary, or approaching a feared situation gradually—can begin to change how you feel. The goal is for you to learn skills that you can eventually use on your own, so that you’re better able to recognize unhelpful patterns and respond differently when they show up.