Therapy is a special kind of partnership where the goal is to help you get more from life.  If I earn your honesty, we can learn from each other and find a way forward.  To help with that, I take a well-organized but flexible approach to therapy.  Think of it like a road trip: I bring a map, and you drive.  We move at the speed you're ready for, toward goals that are genuinely yours.

I believe successful therapy involves building new skills and new understandings.  To help you accomplish this, I draw on four approaches.  DBT offers practical, concrete skills for managing emotions and relationships.  ACT addresses the deeper skills of changing your relationship to your thoughts and emotions, being more present, and connecting to your values.  And EMDR and IFS are proven ways to explore, uncover, and rework the experiences and inner patterns that have kept you stuck.  Woven together, these approaches are powerful and cover much of what therapy has to offer. My ultimate aim is to help you free your deepest Self—to help you reconnect with your values and the energy and courage it takes to live them.  

I believe good therapy serves two roles—it supports you, and it challenges you. I try to find a balance between these two with each client. But I deeply believe that everyone can improve their lives. And so (fair warning), I will eventually bug you to pick some goals, do some work, and make things better. It’s just how I’m wired.

Our first session will focus on your story and what you hope to accomplish.  You don’t need to have everything (or even anything) figured out before coming in.  That’s part of my job.  I’ll help you get oriented and set a course.  Most clients leave that first session feeling more understood and with a clearer sense of how therapy can help.