My Approach to Helping
Thoughts like "I'm not feeling like myself," might feel central to the story of what brings many of my clients therapy. Things might look 'fine' to the outsider, but internally, the story looks different. My client is often the professional navigating various life roles, looking to build insight into patterns of struggle and enhance skills of support. My specialty areas are anxiety (including OCD), struggles with perfectionism, life transitions and stressors, and family of origin work.
My lens as a therapist is first and foremost humanistic and trauma informed which means I put the therapeutic relationship at the center of our work and inform it with the context of your experiences. No one modality fits all and I find mindfully integrating multiple therapeutic approaches, when called for, provides the opportunity for insight and support to build the skills and framework to cultivate lasting change. Therapeutic frames that most often inform my lens are Attachment, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Mindfulness-based therapies. Additionally, I have intensive training from the International OCD Foundation’s Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI) in Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) which is the gold standard in support with OCD and some anxiety experiences.
One of the most empowering things about therapy is it gives us the space and opportunity to pause, be present and connect with our inner world. It is about heart and soul work that supports us in building the tools needed to live a life that we want and need. When I think about my own journey in therapy, I reflect on the people that have stood by my side, walked with me through my struggles, and engaged me with genuine curiosity and care to help me explore, make changes, and just be. That is my hope for you and my mission in this work, to value all of those things and to supportively challenge you in the ways that uniquely fit you. Our relationship is everything to me in this work, and to support that, I am consistently seeking out areas to grow and support my clients by keeping up with the latest evidence-based research and tools to inform our work.