How I work
You don't need to know what any of this means to start therapy, and you never have to. This page is here in case you're curious about what's behind the work, or you want to know what to expect before you're in the room.
I'm not a purist about any one model. I keep a big toolbox and pull from it based on what you need and what your brain and nervous system respond to.
I adapt the work to you rather than expecting you to adapt to the therapy.
Systemic and relational work
Seeing a struggle in context tends to shrink the shame around it.
I'm trained as a marriage and family therapist, which means I rarely see a problem as living inside one person. We get curious about the relationships, experiences, environments, and patterns that shaped it, and how they keep it going.
Emotionally focused, attachment-based work
Understanding what sits underneath is what makes something different possible.
Sometimes a reaction feels bigger than the moment in front of you, and afterward you understand it but couldn't stop it. With individuals and couples alike, we slow those moments down enough to find what's underneath: the older wounds and fears that make certain things feel so threatening or tender now.
This isn't about blaming the past. It's about meeting those places with compassion instead of shame.
Psychoeducation · CBT
Insight without tools can leave you aware but stuck. We work on both.
There is real power in finally understanding why you feel, react, or function the way you do. Sometimes having language for an experience changes the story from "what's wrong with me?" to "oh, no wonder."
I weave psychoeducation throughout our work to help you understand your brain, your nervous system, and your patterns. Not to explain you to yourself, but to help you put down blame you were never supposed to be carrying.
Alongside that, we build practical tools: catching the patterns that keep you stuck and practicing new responses you can use outside the room. The goal isn't to argue you out of your feelings, but to give you more choice in what happens next.
Experiential work · Brainspotting · Sandtray
Some things are easier to reach without words.
Sometimes you already know why something happens, and it still keeps happening. Experiential approaches let us work with what you feel and experience, not just what you can explain.
There's a tray of sand in my office and shelves of miniatures, and no, it's not just for kids. It starts out feeling approachable, almost like play, then goes deeper than you expect, surfacing things neither of us could have gotten to by talking.
Emotionally Focused principles
Gottman Method Level 1 trained
Prepare/Enrich Certified Facilitator
The problem becomes the cycle, rather than either one of you.
With couples, I pay attention to the cycle happening between you: what each of you is experiencing underneath the reaction, and how the ways you protect yourselves can keep the cycle going.
It isn't about the laundry. It's about why you can't talk about the laundry without a fight.
From there, the two of you can begin working together against the pattern instead of against each other.
If you can't be excited for yourself yet,
I will be excited for you.
Solution-focused thinking runs through all of it. Therapy can spend so much time on what hurts that the story becomes only about problems, and you are more than your problems.
I pay attention to your strengths, the moments things go differently, and what you want more of. You've made it this far carrying all of this. That counts for something, and I won't let it go unnoticed.
The methods will keep evolving.
The things underneath them won't.
I'm always learning, pursuing new trainings, and finding new ways to think about this work. The approaches I use will continue to evolve as I grow as a therapist, but the things underneath them stay pretty consistent: curiosity, context, compassion, and finding what actually works for the person in front of me.
That's my job, not yours. Yours is to let me know how the work is feeling for you, what's working, and what isn't.
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