Areas of Focus
Improving relationships/relationship issues
Identity / life path challenges
Couples issues – especially around negotiating relationship dynamics and attachment
Boundary development and holding kind boundaries
Family relationship patterns
Depression
Difficulties with motivation or mobilization
Grief
Body image struggles
Struggles with spiritual identity and practice
Working with disabilities and disability management
Navigating interpersonal relationships - especially for folks on the Autism Spectrum
Academic challenges and managing academic stress for adolescents and students
Team building and communication skills
My Style
The practice of therapy is inspirational to me. It is an incredible joy to witness clients becoming more of their truest selves and really stepping fully into lives they want to live. I work mainly with couples and individuals seeking to have deeper and more fulfilling relationships. I believe that our relationships are the bedrock of our lives. If we can understand more about our relationship to ourselves and how we relate to others, we can create profound shifts in our personal satisfaction and life enjoyment. I support clients in opening up new levels of self-awareness and accessing more choices based on that increased awareness.
My approach is practical, warm, supportive and empathic. I draw on multiple approaches, paying equal attention to both where you are and where you want to be. Primarily, I am relational, which means I believe that it is not only what we talk about in counseling that is healing, but the relationship we build together.
My Story
As a daughter of a Vietnam era veteran, I learned early in life about the impact of trauma on individuals and families and the impact of trauma left untreated. My family turned to meditation as a strategy for healing, which I learned could be helpful for cultivating awareness and mindfulness, but which I discovered had significant limits in getting to the heart of the issues. As a young person, I began to look for new ways to uncover and heal the distress within my own family. That search eventually led me to CIIS and the path of becoming a therapist.
Growing up in a meditation community, I had early exposure to the practice of yoga. Based on my experience with yoga, I have a deep belief in the power of the body and the breath, and I think they can have a significant place in the therapeutic process for those interested in exploring in that way.
After completing my undergraduate degree, prior to pursuing my counseling masters, I lived and worked for 4 years in Japan. This gave me a deep appreciation for the inherently different values we place on parts of our lives and what we each prioritize as important for health. It also taught me just how significant our cultural influences are. It gave me an awareness of the deep power of language and the stories we tell. Based on this experience, I do some work that resembles narrative therapy, working with retelling our personal stories. Retelling has been a powerful tool for me in my own process.
My clients are my greatest inspiration. The path to self-discovery can be long and challenging and I see so much courage in everyone I work with. It is such an honor for me to walk along my clients as they take this incredibly powerful journey to themselves. If you feel I might be a good fit for you, please contact me. I hope to hear from you soon.