“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”
― Pema Chödrön
approach to psychotherapy
Our lives are shaped by many different factors, including, but not limited to:
Family, community, and spiritual relationships
Individual life experiences
Intergenerational family and cultural legacies
Experiences of trauma, belonging/rejection
Experiences of privilege/oppression
Biological/genetic inheritances
Throughout life, we construct self stories to make sense of these factors that shape our lives as well as coping mechanisms to function through difficult life experiences. Over time, the very self-stories and coping mechanisms we created to help us survive, begin to fall short, leaving us with anxiety, depression, inner turmoil - struggling to navigate our relationships, personal and professional lives. We are left wondering:
Why am I struggling? Why am I not happy? What’s wrong with me?
It takes tremendous courage to acknowledge this reality and take steps to change the course.
Drawing from 10+ years of psychology clinical training and experience, my role as your psychologist is to help you figure out what isn’t working in your life and why, and to develop the insight and skills to get unstuck, to build the life you want. I aim to provide a compassionate, warm, and empathic space in which we can collaboratively unpack unhelpful self-narratives. In this process, we also identify and learn the skills necessary to build a life that is aligned with your personal values, and your understanding of what it means to thrive.
What does a therapeutic process with me look like?
I believe one of the greatest gifts we can give someone, is the space to be seen, held and given permission to fall, in order to rise again. Through radical, kind acceptance of who and where we are in the current moment, we create the space to grow and change. For this reason, I place utmost importance upon building a safe and trusting therapeutic connection in which you may experience compassionate acceptance.
Our work begins with a nuanced, culturally responsive, and social-justice informed exploration of what brings you to psychotherapy at this particular moment in your life, and what you are seeking from this process. Our exploration will also include a thoughtful consideration of factors that shape you and your current struggles, as well as your personal values (what/who is important to you?), and sources of strength, support, and resiliency (i.e. community members, chosen family, personal characteristics).
Then, together we integrate this information to identify the psychotherapy approach that might be most effective for you. Our work together may be short-term, solution and skills focused, or longer term, or involving psychedelic support, contingent upon what you need and what works for you. I might also recommend healing methods outside of psychotherapy to supplement our work.
Ultimately, I aim to support you in transforming compassionate insight into concrete behavioral changes that help you create the life you want.
“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that we cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.
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What theories or lenses do I use to understand your struggles and help you build the life you desire?
I utilize an integrative approach to understanding you and helping you make positive changes aligned with your values and desires.
With respect to psychology theories, I draw primarily from the following frameworks:
Relational psychodynamic
Feminist and family systems based
Biopsychosocial
Existentialism
Buddhist Psychology
Intersectionality theory
Indigenous/spiritual frameworks when relevant for the client
We may spend considerable time exploring relationships in your life. This is because I believe that we are wounded in relationship; therefore, we heal in relationship. Our relationships may be with other people, society/social systems, ourselves, spirit, and so many other entities.
By understanding the dynamics of our relationships and the roles we play within them, within the context of a safe, empathic therapeutic relationship, we can free ourselves to mend relational wounds and learn new ways of being.
““…Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ”
Regarding therapeutic interventions, I draw from multiple forms of psychotherapy, including:
Relational Cultural Therapy
Psychodynamic Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Mindfulness and compassion focused therapies
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Indigenous/spiritual frameworks when relevant for the client
Please note: I also have a certificate of training completion in MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). https://maps.org/ and completed training in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) with the Polaris Insight Center in 2023-2024 https://training.polarisinsight.com/ . To learn more about this, please visit the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) https://maps.org/ and Chacruna Institute https://chacruna.net/
This integration enables me to tailor the psychotherapy to meet your specific needs, and ensure that insight and internal growth is coupled with pro-active, positive, behavioral changes in everyday life and relationships.
The following site provides a brief description of various types of psychotherapy (both theory and practice): https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types