Therapy for those who want to thrive
Integrative and evidence-based therapeutic support
We specialize in bringing together evidence-based, somatic and integrative approaches (including EMDR) for
Trauma
Complex trauma
Grief and Loss
Anxiety
OCD
Depression
Relationship challenges
Personal Growth and Identity
My approach to therapy
Below you can learn more about our approaches to treating trauma, OCD, grief and loss, anxiety and depression.
Trauma
I assist clients dealing with trauma and complex trauma by providing integrative trauma support. Trauma treatment often also includes addressing the connection between trauma and grief, OCD, anxiety, or depressive symptoms.
Trauma can arise from a single event or develop over time through ongoing adverse experiences in our upbringing. Childhood trauma isn’t always a result of what happened, but also what didn’t happen. A brilliant trauma therapist once described trauma not just as recollections or memories but as relivings. When we lack support, trauma can manifest in various ways. These effects include persistent negative beliefs, such as “I don’t deserve good things” or “I am not safe”; physical symptoms like feeling overwhelmed, numb, highly stressed, or excessively caring for others; and emotional responses including rage, profound grief, sadness, fear, or emotional numbness. The reliving of trauma occurs not solely through memories, but through thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and changes in nervous system states. This can create confusion and overwhelm, but you can regain your sense of well-being, agency, and joy.
Some of trauma’s most devastating effects are persistent shame, feelings of isolation, self-criticism, overwhelming stress and anxiety, and feeling disconnected. Feeling isolated and alone after trauma may worsen trauma symptoms significantly, and sometimes cause as much harm as the original traumatic experience. The goal of trauma treatment is to support you in regaining your experience of your agency, self-worth, and safety, to help you thrive.
Adverse childhood experiences can lead to relationship patterns that make us feel anxious, inadequate, or unsatisfied. By addressing the underlying reasons behind our experiences and understanding our emotional, mental, and behavioral patterns, we can work towards healthier and more fulfilling relationships.
Grief and Loss
Culturally, grief can feel very isolating and lonely. Loss can feel like everything has changed for us overnight, while others we know move on as if nothing has changed. This can be very hard. Grief is poorly understood by our culture at large; it’s not something you just get over in a year or so. When we are grieving, people around us may not understand our experience, and we ourselves can feel confused, wondering if we or our experiences are normal. I trained in grief work with David Kessler, who uses a wonderful analogy: grief and loss are like a precious vase shattering. If we try to glue the vase back together—to become the same person or live life as before our loss—we may continue to feel broken, just as the vase would look broken. However, if we allow ourselves to grieve fully and live fully, as Kessler describes, and receive understanding and skilled guidance through our journey, we can build something new and beautiful from the shattered pieces. This doesn’t mean we stop grieving or missing the person we lost, but rather, we learn to live fully and find meaning alongside our loss.
David Kessler notes that all trauma involves grief because all trauma involves some type of internal or external loss. Not all grief involves trauma. Some grief or loss can be traumatic and require both trauma and grief support.
OCD
Many clients experience intrusive and obsessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors for years, often accompanied by shame or helplessness. OCD symptoms can be primarily mental and emotional, becoming so ingrained that we may not recognize the extent of our suffering or its impact on others. OCD often interferes with what matters most, such as relationships, parenting, and work, which contributes to its distressing nature.
Research shows that effective OCD treatment requires specialized, evidence-based support. Unfortunately, many people wait a long time before receiving appropriate care and relief.
OCD is fundamentally about a need for certainty and safety. Who doesn’t want certainty and safety? However, in OCD, our brain and body have established ways of managing anxiety and uncertainty that give us temporary relief, but over time increase our anxiety and suffering, and sometimes run our lives and relationships. This is another aspect of OCD that makes it so painful. OCD causes us to ask questions or seek reassurance that we cannot be completely certain of, such as: “Am I a good person?” Will I get fired from my job? Will my partner be faithful? Am I good enough? Will my parents get sick? Will I accidentally injure someone with my car if I drive? Will I get sick if I use a public restroom? Will I hurt someone I love? Will I develop psychosis? Or, if I think a certain thought or don’t engage in a specific action, something bad might happen. In certain types of OCD, it can feel unbearable if things aren’t done a certain way or placed in a particular location. Sometimes, OCD symptoms entail intrusive images or body sensations, or a feeling that things aren’t quite right. OCD symptoms can feel relentless in getting in the way of our ability to be present, enjoy our life, or feel good about ourselves.
Effective OCD treatment at its core involves working with the ways that our brain has learned to avoid our anxiety and discomfort, and to learn to live with or ‘befriend’ certain degrees of uncertainty. This type of exposure work, called Exposure and Response Prevention, is the gold standard for OCD treatment and can be very effective and feel liberating to clients, but it can take courage to engage in. I support clients in finding this courage by remembering how their OCD-safety-seeking behaviors (mental or physical behaviors) are getting in the way of living the life they want to live, or making it hard to be who they want to be in their relationships.
I trained with the International OCD Foundation, and I am passionate about bringing compassionate, evidence-based, and effective support to clients suffering from OCD.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a normal and necessary response that helps us recognize potential danger. Research indicates that resisting or fighting anxiety makes it more difficult to manage.
I use a range of approaches tailored to each client. I listen carefully as clients describe their experience, and I tend to ask many questions to hone in on their struggle and what is causing their symptoms, in order to determine the most effective treatment and way forward for each client.
For some, anxiety stems from trauma or trauma-related beliefs, so we address the underlying trauma. Others may experience anxiety due to avoidance, self-neglect, or people-pleasing behaviors. Exposure work can also be effective, helping clients learn they can handle anxiety-provoking situations and empowering them to expand their lives.
Some clients have developed a fear of the physical sensations linked to anxiety and panic. In these cases, learning to separate these sensations from fear or to tolerate them can help prevent panic attacks. Clients may also create narratives about their anxiety, which can increase anxiety and self-criticism, leading to spiraling, and a negative cycle. When anxiety has become overwhelming and disrupts daily functioning, I discuss comprehensive treatment options with clients.
When clients cultivate self-compassion and the ability to view their own experience with more curiosity and mindfulness, they realize that their anxiety is not as frightening as they may have believed, and that sometimes (not always) it is actually an important signal that something stressful, needing attention, or in need of change is happening in their lives.
Ultimately, anxiety calls to us to change our relationship to it, to become curious, compassionate toward ourselves, and sometimes just invite the anxiety to come along to what we want to do, rather than try to fight it or tell ourselves we cannot do things we want to do or live the life we want to live until we are no longer anxious. We are all anxious sometimes.