About Me

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My Approach to Therapy

I strive to create an atmosphere of warmth, safety, and curiosity in therapy. My style tends to be friendly, engaged, and active.

I integrate a number of different psychological theories and methods into therapy, and my expertise includes psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, family systems, and mindfulness-based modalities. This means I try to balance addressing present-day challenges with identifying and healing the roots of those challenges, which often involve our formative experiences and relationships.

I feel it is important to consider and explore our internal experience of ourselves and others, as well as identify how our thoughts, feelings, and close relationships might interact in our lives and minds to create both difficulties and opportunities.

Appreciation of each person’s unique cultural context is very important to me, and I have experience working with people of many diverse gender identities, sexual orientations, relationship practices, racial/ethnic backgrounds, abilities, and spiritual beliefs. 

Specialties

Sexual and Relationship Diversity

  • I am affirming of, and knowledgeable about, many diverse relationships and sexualities such as consensual non-monogamy (eg: polyamory, open relationships, swinging), kink/BDSM, as well as LGBTQ+ identities and relationships.

Relationship Challenges

  • I have significant experience helping couples and relationships with communication, intimacy, sexuality, life transition, and emotional challenges.

Mood and Anxiety Issues

  • Much of my work involves helping people dealing with mild to severe depression, anxiety, bipolar, and other mood and anxiety-related issues.

Complex and Attachment Trauma

  • If you have faced chronic or complex trauma, meaning multiple traumatic experiences of one or more different types, and/or attachment trauma, involving difficult or abusive caregiver or intimate relationships, I would like to help.

Long-Term Relationship and Personality Patterns

  • My skills include helping people change long-term negative or challenging patterns they experience in their close relationships, and/or persistent difficulties with their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviors that make life harder for them.

Training and Experience

I am a licensed clinical psychologist in California (PSY32022). I received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant International University. In addition, I have Masters degrees in clinical and general psychology from CSPP and Pepperdine University, respectively. After finishing my doctorate I completed two years of advanced training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at Rose City Center.

In addition to my private practice I am also an active researcher, author, and speaker. I regularly publish peer-reviewed research, train other clinicians, provide professional consultation, as well as engage in a variety of mentorship, supervisory, and leadership roles within various professional organizations.