My Approach

In my private psychotherapy practice, I take an integrative approach to treatment, incorporating various modalities into my clinical work, including psychodynamic theory, family systems, positive psychology, mindfulness, yogic philosophy, intuitive eating and somatic experiencing. 

I believe that each person presents in a unique way and I work with my patients to tailor treatment to their specific needs and strengths in any given session. I take a “holistic” perspective on human functioning and explore all aspects of my patients’ well-being:  emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and relational. My general philosophy is that human beings are meant to learn and grow from their experiences and I encourage patients to turn obstacles into opportunities and challenges into change. 

Finding ways to live vibrantly and fully in each moment we are blessed to experience.

 Throughout my years as a clinician, I have remained curious about how the human body stores and releases unresolved emotions (“the issues in our tissues.”) This curiosity motivated me to deepen my understanding of the role the body plays in mental and emotional health. I pursued this interest through various certifications, including a health/wellness and yoga teacher training and a meditation teacher training. When therapeutically appropriate, I offer to weave mindfulness practices, breathing practices and an occasional yoga posture into a therapy session.  

Most recently, I completed a three year training in Somatic Experiencing (SE), a body-oriented approach to healing trauma.  

In addition to being useful in addressing traumatic experiences, SE is helpful for working with difficult emotional states, whether or not they are associated with trauma. SE offers perspectives and techniques that allow me to work directly with the individual’s body and nervous system in order to access sensations and emotions that the person has not been able to completely experience or integrate.  By inquiring about the patient’s physiological experience in the moment, I help their nervous system find a safe, gradual way to feel into emotions and sensations they have previously avoided.  While some SE Practitioners use physical touch, I do not have any physical contact with patients.    

My integrative approach to psychotherapy is founded on a belief that we are meant to realize our fullest potential. Rather than focusing on what is wrong, I actively work with each patient to explore and overcome the obstacles preventing that person from living their most vibrant and healthy lifestyle. My approach to psychotherapy is highly interactive and assumes that therapist and patient work together in a dynamic therapeutic relationship with the intention of empowering the patient to cultivate greater self-awareness and self-compassion.  

Observe

Guiding individuals to pay attention to the details of the mental, emotional and physical experience they are having in any given moment, without judging or trying to change that experience

Choose

Recognizing that each moment of awareness brings an opportunity to choose a response in the service of an individual’s best interests, goals and/or values 

Integrate

Creating a lifestyle, choice by choice, moment by moment, with conscious awareness and intention

Recognizing that each patient has specific issues, strengths, family histories, cultural backgrounds and mindsets, I take an individualized approach to treatment. I work with individuals, couples and families to increase awareness of thought patterns and emotions underlying communication difficulties. With a focus on self-care at the deepest level, I teach my patients to identify their own needs and desires and to communicate with their own bodies and with others to attain what they require, desire and deserve.  

Using an active relational approach, I help patients access uncomfortable emotional states rather than avoid them. I believe that one of the purposes of psychotherapy is to facilitate integration of all human experiences, no matter how uncomfortable, in the process of healing.  Using presence, breath work and mindfulness, I maintain my own presence with patients as they learn to sit comfortably in discomfort, exploring painful or unpleasant emotions.  This approach is founded in a belief that when people learn to be present with their emotions in a safe therapeutic setting, they will be able to respond to external stressors in a calmer, less reactive way.   

I am a former corporate attorney, an experienced clinical psychologist and a passionate advocate of intuitive eating, yoga, meditation and mindfulness as adjunct modalities in cultivating physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and relational wellness. It has been my great pleasure and privilege to work with many patients over the course of almost thirty years in clinical practice and to witness the transformative impact of self-awareness, self-care and self-compassion.