Research suggests ~20-30% of adults in the USA will experience clinically significant depression at some point in their lifetime. Depression not only impacts our mood, but can also reduce our motivation to engage in the world around us, threaten our self-esteem, and result in various physical symptoms that can interfere with our daily functioning. My approach to treating depression not only focuses on reducing depression symptoms, but also helping my clients feel increasingly connected to themselves and the things that bring joy and meaning to their lives.

Please see the “Services” page on my website for more information about how I approach treatment for depression.

Anxiety can feel all-consuming; taking over our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. Anxiety can also show up in a variety of ways, such as in social settings, or in response to specific situations. For some people, anxiety feels nearly universal and is present across many areas in their life. Because anxiety is a natural and inevitable human experience, my approach to treatment focuses on helping my clients change their relationship with anxiety. I strive to help my clients feel more confident in their ability to cope with worry when it arises, and ultimately feel like they are in control of the anxiety (and not the other way around).

Please see the “Services” page on my website for more information about treatment for anxiety.

I am an expert in behavioral sleep medicine and can help people experiencing insomnia and/or other sleep concerns such as nightmares, circadian rhythm disorders (including challenges related to shift work), and difficulties using prescribed treatments for sleep apnea (e.g., PAP treatment).

I am very passionate about helping people improve their sleep. Sleep is vital for our mental and physical well-being and is what provides us with the energy to live rich, meaningful lives. Improving sleep quality has been shown to be instrumental in helping to improve various mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Luckily, we have an incredibly effective behavioral treatment for insomnia called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), which I use regularly to help people improve their sleep quality and the relationship they have with their sleep.

Please see the “Services” page on my website for more information about insomnia treatment.

I am a clinical health psychologist with expertise in providing mental health treatment to individuals with a history of acute or chronic illness. Our mental and physical health are inextricably intertwined and can therefore heavily influence one another. When we face physical health concerns, we often find ourselves needing to adjust to changes in various domains of life: our daily activities, the roles we have at work or within our family, our relationships with other people, and even our plans for the future. The need to adapt and cope with a “new normal” can often be accompanied by feelings of stress, sadness, confusion, and even grief. When working with clients navigating physical health conditions, I strive to help them process the emotional impact of their illness, develop additional coping strategies to help protect their mental well-being, and identify ways to continue living their life according to their own values.

My approach to addressing the impact of acute/chronic illness is integrative in nature, meaning I pull from several different treatment approaches to provide my clients with both an emotionally supportive environment and tangible coping skills such as techniques to promote stress reduction, self-compassion, symptom management, and advocacy with their healthcare team. Some of these skills draw from evidence-based psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). For more information about these treatment approaches, please see the “Services” page on my website.

Following traumatic events, we may find ourselves experiencing various symptoms that can contribute to high levels of emotional and physical distress. Some examples of trauma-related symptoms include:

• Experiencing reminders of the trauma (e.g., unwanted memories, nightmares)

• The urge to avoid reminders of the traumatic event (e.g., specific people, places, activities)

• Negative changes to our mood (e.g., guilt, shame, fear, anger) and our beliefs (e.g., about ourselves, others, the world)

• Difficulty connecting to our own emotions and/or to other people

• Physiological symptoms such as hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, insomnia, and difficulties with concentration or memory

I recognize that pursuing trauma-focused treatment is challenging and vulnerable work. I strive to educate my clients about trauma, its impact on the brain and body, as well as what research has showed us regarding how best to treat trauma-related symptoms. I believe this information is crucial in helping clients feel autonomous in their choices surrounding treatment, including when they feel prepared to begin the work and what type of treatment they would like to pursue.

I am able to provide gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for trauma-related distress including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), and Written Exposure Therapy (WET). For more information about these forms of trauma-focused treatment, please see the “Services” page on my website.

Chronic stress is all too pervasive in our world today, and it can have serious consequences for our mental and physical health. Often the stressors we face in life are not our fault, yet are somehow our responsibility to manage. It may feel like the solution is to “power through,” or “fire on all cylinders” in order to cope. Slowing down to take care of ourselves may feel like a luxury we can’t afford, or even something we aren’t sure how to do. In my work with clients, I strive to help them prioritize time and space for mental and physical restoration from stress - a crucial form of self-care that can help to keep us more connected to our lives.

My approach to addressing chronic stress is integrative in nature, meaning I pull from several different treatment approaches to provide my clients with tangible coping skills such as mind-body, mindfulness, and self-compassion techniques. Some of these skills draw from evidence-based psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). For more information about these treatment approaches, please see the “Services” page on my website.

We all fall on a spectrum as to how intensely we feel our emotions, how quickly they are activated, and how long they take to resolve. Some people might find that they have a hard time accessing their emotions or “letting them in.” On the other hand, some people feel their emotions very deeply and can feel overwhelmed by them. Wherever we fall on this spectrum is perfectly fine - there is no “right” way to experience our emotions! However, some of us may find that we want to learn how to respond differently to emotions when they arise within us.

Therapy can offer various tools for helping people regulate, or manage, their emotions in a more workable way. I draw from both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in doing this work with my clients, as both treatments have been shown to be effective at increasing emotional flexibility and emotion regulation. To learn more about these approaches to treatment, please see the “Services” page on my website.

Our relationships with other people can bring immense purpose and meaning to our lives, and they can also be difficult to navigate! In any given relationship, we are faced with a difficult truth: we are only able to control our own behavior. Our task is often to find balance between two seemingly opposite forces — cultivating acceptance for the lack of control we have over others, while also pursuing changes that are important to us in our social relationships. This work involves 1) learning skills for effective communication, and 2) building insight into ourselves, our patterns in relating to others, and the goals that we have for our relationships.

When I work with clients who want to improve their interpersonal relationships, I tend to draw from both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). For more information about those treatment approaches, please see the “Services” page on my website.

It might feel like there are a mix of things that you’d like to discuss in therapy, and it also might feel like none of the above topic areas quite apply to you. That is okay! Psychotherapy can help us navigate a whole host of life experiences. If you’d like to see if I may be a provider who can help you pursue your specific therapy-related goals, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the form on the “Contact” page of my website and we can discuss further!