Services

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands, suddenly at a new phase of life that feels daunting, or lacking confidence in your decision making, you’re not alone. This can look like increased anxiety throughout the day, feeling more snappy in your relationships, up worrying at night, or stuck in unhealthy coping patterns that are no longer serving you. Or perhaps you are seeking healing from a past trauma or loss, which you need more time to process and heal.

Many people face these struggles, and it’s okay to seek support. At times it can just be so hard to navigate all the complexities, transitions and demands of our everyday lives alone. Together in therapy, you’ll find a safe space to explore these feelings and gain clarity. It is a sacred time during the week where you can pause, reflect on what’s really important and with guidance make meaningful steps towards increased wellness.

In our sessions, my approach is to use a blend of modalities to help you manage your stressors and gain more confidence. We will talk about unhealthy thinking patterns, how to be more assertive, practice strategies to building emotional resiliency and learn to accept all your emotions even the hard ones. I find that many of my clients tend to be empaths, deep thinkers, and people with many talents, however the common issues they are struggling with include: anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, eating disorders or family stress. Together, we’ll work on practical strategies and insights tailored to your situation, empowering you to navigate your challenges and foster a more balanced and fulfilling life.

It is well known that being a teenager or young adults is not easy. It’s a time of so much change and growth. With that comes the excitement of more independence, competence and freedom. However the added responsibility, heighten emotions, navigating friends/relationships/family, and figuring out what kind of person you want to be in the world is A LOT. With over 20 years experience working with teenagers and young adults, I understand these challenges and can be that supportive adult outside the family to turn to during times of stress.

My approach with teenagers and young adults is very personable. I primarily use talk therapy, but depending on developmental stage and preferences, I will also incorporate making art, playing games, going to the park and listening to music together. I make sure to match my interventions and communication style to best fit the youth.

I support young people with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, identity development, navigating friendships, going to college or starting work, separated parents or dealing with a past trauma. I take my time to get to know the young person and their family, providing them a confidential space to vent and process. However most of the time I like to keep caregivers in the loop and provide them with regular updates or conduct separate caregiver sessions. When appropriate I will suggest a joint family session. I’m also trained in Family-Based Treatment (FBT) for Eating Disorders and can support young people and families struggling with disordered eating.

Parenting is a journey filled with both joy and challenges, and it’s natural to feel overwhelmed and confused at times. It’s also so common to feel alone in your household with tricky situations and unsure what is typical or acceptable. I partner with parents who are looking for support with managing these challenging situations and are seeking to do right by their children. Often parents are hoping to break inter-generational cycles and evolve in their parenting practices and not just repeat what they experienced as children.

With over 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents and families I have a strong understanding of developmental stages, typical and atypical behaviors, normative emotional expression and how to be a sturdy parent with limit setting and cooperation, while also maintaining a positive relationship and connection with your child. We can work through strategies for big emotions, challenging behaviors, sibling dynamics, ADHD, anxiety, sleep problems, divorce, life transitions and/or identity development. My coaching services are designed to support you in these areas by offering practical strategies, empathetic guidance, and effective tools tailored to your family’s unique needs. We will also delve into how family culture, institutions, systems of oppression and past traumas have impacted parenting over generations and how practices were adaptive at the time, but might need a revamp.

I believe our children can be our biggest teachers. Often the challenges they present and the ways in which parents are striving to meet their needs, push the parents to be a better version of themselves and achieve personal self-improvement goals at the same time. Additionally, children best learn self-regulation skills via their core relationships. When parents are regulated themselves they are modeling to children how to handle emotions, which is way more impactful than any specific one strategy. I support parents to bring connection to big feelings, instead of aloneness. My approach is strength-based, always trying to point out strengths and encourage self-compassion even when there have been ruptures or mistakes. As a parent myself, I acknowledge that I’m on this journey too, and putting these skills to practice is hard. I am humbled and impressed by how parents are eager to grow and create good humans who are prepared for everything life brings.

In Parent Coaching, I help parents build more confidence in their abilities and have some guiding principals to fall back on when they find themselves in sticky situations. My approach is like being your coach: I provide gentle guidance, offer suggestions, witness all the highs and lows without judgment and my favorite part is being your cheerleader, making sure to celebrate the successes.

I believe the best healing is done in relationships. As humans beings, we are innately relational. Having been informed and influenced by those we grow up with, we make meaning together and get our needs met through one another. However families are also complicated and messy and it is so common for ruptures in relationships to occur. Especially when times are tough such as going through transitions, separations, moves, immigration and having conflict. Therefore, when there is pain, it’s often in relation to someone in our circle. And more profound and lasting healing will happen when it’s done together, sharing with and being witnessed by family members. Therefore, bringing families members together in therapy is so effective and healing. This is often tricky at first and feels awkward, but just like anything new, it gets better with practice and can pave the way for healthier interactions in the future. I often say, when there is a rupture, there is an opportunity for repair, and it doesn’t matter how much later that repair happens, it feels good just the same.

When working with families I encourage direct communication, building empathy, and quality time together. I carefully help families take out what’s swept under the rug and make the unspeakable speakable. With my guidance, I will teach families to ask each other difficult questions, to reflect and validate, to apologize when needed, to show affection, and to carry these practices beyond the session. Family therapy can including bringing in one extra person to the session, or several. I am always encouraging of bringing in parents, grandparents, step-parents, aunts/uncles, siblings, or whomever might be supportive. It can be especially helpful for children or adolescents with anxiety, depression, past trauma or eating disorders. Often when family relationships are feeling sturdier, children’s problematic behaviors and mental health symptoms subside. Family therapy can very affective to achieve healing for multiple family members at the same time. Family therapy can be the modality of choice, or it can be incorporated with individual therapy, bringing in family members as needed and then alternating between one on one sessions and family sessions.

I participated in extensive training with a Bay Area family system’s psychologist in which myself and other family therapists conducted sessions with a one-way mirror. This helped build my skills, techniques and confidence. I continue to be connected to this community today through regular consultation and networking.

In addition to standard Family Therapy I also obtained training in Family-Based Treatment for Eating Disorders (FBT) and can support youth and young adults with anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorders, and ARFID. This type of therapy is very intensive and involves collaborating with family, doctors, nutritionists and school. I support parents to take care of their loved-one with heathier eating habits in addition to other con-occurring mental health issues that may exist.

Have you been feeling stuck? Maybe you've been struggling with depression or anxiety or a past trauma for a long time, tried different therapies and meds for many years but are still not finding the relief you want. I offer a safe therapeutic modality called Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) in partnership with an organization called Journey Clinical.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is a holistic modality in which ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, is used as a complement to psychotherapy to help eligible patients experience more frequent breakthroughs and sustained improvement in symptoms. I take on the psychotherapy portion of the experience, while Journey Clinical’s medical team supports you on all medical aspects. This includes determining eligibility, developing a custom treatment plan, prescribing the lozenge medicine and monitoring outcomes. Because ketamine increases the neuroplasticity of the brain, the psychotherapy after the ketamine experience called “integration,” is a ripe time for making new connections, having profound insights and break-throughs and can help process trauma and emotions that were harder to access with traditional talk-therapy.

As a KAP practitioner, I am very excited about offering this emerging new treatment modality to accelerate clients’ healing. I support clients to make an individualized plan for their ketamine experience that feels safe and supported. Usually this includes at minimum one preparation session before the ketamine dosing session and at least one integration session after the dosing session, to help process and solidify the experience. I find this works especially well in conjunction with an already established individual therapy relationship, where there is trust and defined goals. If interested, please reach out and I can share more details and resources.