My Approach
People often seek therapy when familiar ways of thinking, feeling, or relating begin to feel limiting or self-defeating. You may struggle with anxiety, depression, or the effects of trauma, or find yourself repeating patterns you recognize but cannot seem to change. Perhaps you dismiss your own feelings, feel responsible for others at your own expense, avoid conflict, or struggle to feel secure in relationships. You may know that something isn’t working without yet having words for it.
We begin by exploring how these difficulties take shape in your life and what keeps them recurring. We explore what happens in difficult moments: what you feel, what you expect from others, how you respond, and what becomes difficult to express or ask for. Many recurring difficulties develop in the context of early relationships and become reinforced or activated by later life experiences. Ways of coping that once helped you preserve connection, avoid conflict, or protect yourself may eventually restrict your choices. Understanding how these patterns developed as well as and how they operate now can help you respond with greater flexibility and less self-criticism.
This work involves more than looking back. We pay attention to how patterns unfold in your current relationships and everyday life, and sometimes between us in therapy. Together, we can examine assumptions about yourself and others, make room for feelings you have learned to set aside, and consider different ways of responding. Depending on your needs, this may include practicing more direct communication, setting boundaries, approaching situations you tend to avoid, or developing tools to manage distress. Reflection, insight, and practical change inform each other throughout the work.
My therapeutic orientation is integrative, drawing primarily from psychodynamic, attachment-based, and existential perspectives. These approaches guide my attention to emotional and relational patterns, the influence of past experience, and questions of identity, meaning, and choice. I also incorporate cognitive-behavioral and other skills-based strategies when useful. My work is trauma-informed, shaped by extensive experience treating the effects of early and later-life adversity, including complex trauma and moral injury.
I view therapy as a collaborative process. Some people arrive with specific goals; others need time to understand what feels wrong or what they want to change. We develop a focus together and revisit it as the work evolves, with attention to your priorities, preferences, and pace.
Understanding your experience also means attending to the cultural, social, and material conditions of your life. Before entering private practice, I worked primarily in publicly funded urban medical centers with culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse populations. I bring that experience to a practice that welcomes exploration of identity, belonging, discrimination, and the broader circumstances shaping your relationships and well-being.