Consultation and Supervision
I provide consultation to colleagues around supervision of pre- and post-doctoral students. I served as the Director of Training and Supervisor at the Berkeley Therapy Institute from 2014 to 2022. I managed eight supervisors and between 4-8 students in the program around administrative, clinical, and ethical issues. I enjoy providing grounding, perspective and encouragement to others engaging in the supervision process.
I provide weekly supervision and time limited consultation to early career mental health clinicians and post-doctoral level students. I work from an eclectic theoretical perspective with emphasis on relational and attachment informed therapy.
Please email me with inquiries.
Children/Adolescents
Middle School
The middle school years can be HARD!!! Often, this is when kids begin to struggle socially, academically and show signs of depression or anxiety. The pandemic and impact of social media have made it harder. These kids are facing major transitions in their lives and within their own bodies. I meet them where they are, sometimes we do art or play games, when they are ready, we talk. I am happy to work with parents, teachers, and school in support of the child’s needs. Therapy with middle schoolers takes time, patience, and consistency on the part of all involved!
High School
If middle school is hard High School is HARDER! It can be hard on families, parents and mostly the teens themselves. The age of 13-18 is a time where there is an increasing demand academically, socially, and emotionally. Kids are asked to operate more and more independently while learning to navigate the world and continue to exist within their family system. They are facing big decisions around sex, drugs, and life direction, and often their parents are the LAST people they want to turn to for guidance. That can be frustrating and scary for parents and complicated for the teen. Therapy can be a place where teens are able to explore the challenges they are facing without fear of judgement or recrimination, where they can focus on who they want to be and how to get there. My role is to challenge them, support them and value them right where they are on their journey.
I value teenagers right to privacy and prefer to maintain confidentiality in my relationship with them if they are my individual patient. Teenagers are more likely to trust and confide in me if they don’t feel I will be reporting back to their parents. I use safety as the guiding line for issues that require parental involvement.
Individual Therapy
Individual adult therapy is a collaborative process, I don’t fix you, we work together to build a relationship that provides you the safety to explore whatever you need to sort through and change. I provide insight and feedback; I ask questions and I provide tools to help you achieve what you want to change in your life. I focus on your thought patterns, your internal narrative, your habits and beliefs, your emotions, and your specific challenges to help you develop a better outlook and sense of self.
Family Therapy
As in all my work, I work with families from a relational and attachment perspective. This means that I am actively engaged in understanding the dynamics at play and the underlying communications not being verbalized. My goal is to help bring issues to the surface where they can be talked about with honesty and sensitivity. I work with many different family constellations including blended families, adolescent/parent dyads or triads and sibling groups. Family work tends to be short term and focused on current dynamics and challenges. Throughout the process I may meet individually with members of the family as well as with the family as a whole. The goal is to help you navigate the difficulties prohibiting the communication and connection you are seeking. I help each member of the family create the opportunity to be heard and understood as well as to stay open to hearing the experience and requests from their family members. I particularly enjoy working with families with adolescents who are struggling behaviorally, academically, and socially.
Couples Therapy, EFT
My work with couples is firmly rooted in a belief that human beings long to feel safe, seen, heard, and connected. These are all facets of secure and healthy attachment with our partner. When couples are in chronic conflict, experiencing disappointment or hopelessness or face difficult ruptures in trust; their connection is no longer safe or reliable. This leads to disconnection that shows up in the behavior, language, and attitude we display and experience.
I practice Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) an Attachment based therapy created by Sue Johnson, a renowned Attachment and Emotion therapist and researcher. This approach attends to the deep longing in which our needs are rooted. My aim is to help couples learn to identify the negative cycle in which they are participating that keeps them from the connection and safety they long for. Our focus will be less on what you fight out about and more on how you fight and learning how to keep some level of connection during and after conflict.
The path to maintaining connection, appreciation, and empathy for one another lies in our ability to express and understand emotions, reactions, and experiences, both our own and those of our partner. EFT builds trust and security in the relationship through an understanding of the underlying communications that are taking place in fights, silences, and behaviors. Once understanding of the negative cycle between partners is gained, we move to recognizing the habits, patterns and interactions that reinforce this cycle and work to shift to engagement that supports each person in feeling loved and supported.
Learn more at ICEFT : International Community for Emotion Focused Therapy