Areas of Expertise
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Anxiety is your body's normal response to stress or a perceived threat, but when it becomes excessive or persistent, it can develop into an anxiety disorder that interferes with daily life.
Physical symptoms can include rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling, and muscle tension. Mental/cognitive symptoms can include racing thoughts, restlessness, trouble concentrating, and a constant sense of impending danger or doom.
Treatment focuses on managing both the physical and cognitive symptoms through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, body relaxation techniques, and incorporating Polyvagal Theory to gain a deeper understanding into your own autonomic nervous system.
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Depression is a common and serious mood disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, and a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed.
Unlike normal, temporary sadness or a bad day, clinical depression lasts for most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks and interferes with daily functioning.
Treatment targets changing negative thought patterns through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and increasing motivation through behavioral activation techniques.
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Trauma is any event that overwhelms an individual's ability to cope. Trauma therapy focuses on helping an individual process distressing life events, reduce symptoms like anxiety or hypervigilance, and restore a sense of safety. Goals of trauma treatment are focused on increasing your capacity to stay present with and effectively respond to states of mind, emotions, sensations, interpersonal exchanges, and complexity in life.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after you experience, see, or learn about a terrifying or life-threatening event. The brain and body do not fully process stress following a severe trauma like an accident, assault, disaster, or combat, which can leave you feeling ‘stuck’ in the trauma event, even years later.
Symptoms are organized into four groups: intrusion, avoidance, arousal and reactivity, cognition and mood. Treatment can include Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, and Somatic interventions. To learn more about these therapies, please see the below section on Therapeutic Interventions.
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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a lifelong brain-based neurodevelopmental condition marked by ongoing patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADHD is strongly linked to genetics and brain structure differences, particularly involving executive functions in the prefrontal cortex.
Treatment focuses on increasing executive function management in six main areas: working memory, sense of time, prospective memory, emotional self-control, self activation, and hindsight & forethought.
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Grief is a deep, natural, emotional and physical response to a significant loss or change in life. Therapy can be helpful for processing acute grief, which is the typical emotional response to a loss, as well as prolonged grief. This type of grief is characterized by an extended duration of intense emotional pain that disrupts daily functioning, involving difficulty accepting the death, intense yearning, and emotional numbness.
Grief therapy addresses complicated or prolonged grief reactions by addressing unresolved emotions, the traumatic loss, and the persistent impact of grief on mental and physical health, guiding individuals toward adaptive coping and restored resilience.
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Substance misuse means taking a drug or using alcohol in an unsafe or ‘too much, too fast’ way as a means to cope with stress or avoid strong emotions. Substance misuse can lead to addiction when the compulsion to use continues despite harmful consequences.
As an outpatient provider, treatment focuses on planning for change, managing cravings and urges through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques, and working towards either a harm reduction or abstinence approach based on the client’s preferences.
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Behavioral addictions, or process addictions, occur when a person feels a strong, uncontrollable urge to do an action that gives them a reward or a "high," even though it causes major harm to their life, health, or relationships. Unlike drug or alcohol addictions, they involve habits instead of substances.
Treatment focuses on managing urges, uncovering the ‘why’ behind the urge, and working towards either a harm reduction or abstinence approach based on the client’s preferences.
Therapeutic Interventions
EMDR Therapy
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) focuses on the individual’s present concerns from past experiences. The EMDR approach believes past emotionally-charged experiences are overly influencing your present emotions, sensations, and thoughts about yourself.
EMDR processing helps you break through the emotional blocks that are keeping you from living an adaptive, emotionally healthy life.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy) teaches you how trauma changes the way you think about yourself, others, and the world. Over the course of 12 sessions, we work on identifying and challenging stuck points (unhelpful or false beliefs) that keep you trapped in fear, guilt, or anger.
We focus on five key areas affected by trauma: safety, trust, control, self-esteem, and intimacy to adopt a more balanced and adaptive way of thinking.
Somatic Interventions
Somatic interventions are body-based therapeutic techniques that use physical sensation, breath, posture, and movement to regulate the nervous system and release stored stress or trauma. We work to expand your ability to process intense emotions without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down through grounding and resourcing skills, and by becoming more in tune with your nervous system.
Somatic skills can help discharge the fight-flight-freeze survival responses stuck in the body and help the body achieve a regulated nervous system.
Cost:
Initial Assessment/Consultation: $170
Individual 40-45 minute session: $115
Individual 53-60 minute session: $140
Insurance:
In-network with BCBS, UBH/Optum, and Aetna.
For out-of-network clients, I accept private pay and can provide a Superbill for you to submit to your insurance company in an effort to receive out-of-network provider reimbursement.
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Stress and trauma live in the body as well as the mind, so insight alone doesn't always change how you feel. A mind-body approach goes beyond traditional talk therapy to work directly with your nervous system. You won't be asked to simply retell your story. Sessions might include noticing where you feel tension in your body, slowing your breath, or learning to notice your own signals before they become overwhelming. Together, we'll use breathing techniques, somatic practices, and grounding skills, along with clear, practical education about how your nervous system works, so you understand the why behind what you feel. These practices work well over telehealth, and they complement evidence-based approaches like EMDR and CPT.
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I see individuals from ages 13 and up. I specialize in treatment of anxiety and stress management, depression, ADHD, trauma and PTSD, life transitions and adjustment Issues, self-esteem and personal growth, grief and loss, substance use and/or behavioral addictions (i.e. gambling).
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There will be $100 no-show/late cancellation fee for a missed appointment unless you cancel/reschedule your appointment with a 24-hour advanced notice.