My Approach to Therapy

As people, we embody expectations and assumptions about what we imagine will move us toward healthy and promising lives and relationships. When these are disrupted or challenged—intense emotions, confusing thoughts, loss, broken relationships, individual trauma, systemic traumas, or other difficult life circumstances—we can get stuck and feel like we’re drowning, confused, alone, in pain, and or just numb.

It is in this place where therapy can be helpful. Relationships can cause so much pain in our lives, but they also can be sources of incredible meaning-making and healing. It is in the uniqueness of a therapeutic relationship that we can begin to journey together. We can help you slow down, make sense of your story, have compassion for the ways you have been trying to survive, and help you identify the patterns that continue to leave you feeling stuck and in pain.

Good therapy creates a courageous safe space in which a collaborative process helps you see yourself more clearly as we identify strengths and joys as well as growing edges and pain. I work to not only reduce your symptoms but integrate all these elements in a way that will set you free to live your life more fully. I value drawing on the strengths, values, contexts, and communities (e.g., cultural, religious, chosen family) of my clients because they are what make each person unique and thus are essential to the process of healing.

I have a passion for the discovery and integration of people’s identities and stories. This especially includes a passion for working with emerging adults, men, as well as people with complex relational trauma. I also have a specific passion for cultural diversity, which comes from my own experiences of being biracial. Lastly, I have specific training and energy around the integration of people’s spirituality and the Sacred from all faith backgrounds into the psychotherapeutic work. I draw specifically from psychodynamic, relational, emotion-focused, internal family systems, and attachment perspectives.