How I work
We can understand something about ourselves and still find it difficult to change. My approach considers why this happens and how our experiences continue to influence us, often in ways we do not immediately recognize.
Many painful patterns have roots in difficult experiences, including emotional or physical neglect, abuse, family substance use, mental illness, or early relational wounds. These experiences can affect the nervous system and make it difficult to change emotions, thoughts, or behaviors through effort alone.
For this reason, I pay attention both to what you can put into words and to how you experience stress in your body. These are related aspects of your experience, and considering them together can give us a fuller understanding of what is happening.
My practice is grounded in long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, with particular attention to trauma. We consider what brings you to therapy in relation to your history, rather than treating each difficulty as separate from the rest of your life.
I bring my understanding as a therapist, while you bring knowledge of your own experience. We discuss what you want to address and consider how the work is developing. Your responses to therapy, including uncertainty or disagreement, are part of that discussion.
I trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies, also known as LAISPS. This training informs how I think about feelings, relationships, and conflicts that may be outside our immediate awareness. My trauma and body-aware training also informs how I attend to the physical effects of distress.
In ongoing work, we examine how earlier relationships, unresolved conflicts, and feelings outside immediate awareness influence the present. We also pay attention to what emerges between us in therapy, as a way to understand familiar patterns in depth.
TRM and CRM are body-aware approaches informed by neuroscience. I may use them to help you notice sensations under stress and build tools for bringing your nervous system back toward balance and resilience.
EMDR is a well-researched therapy method. An attachment-focused approach can be especially helpful for deep relational wounds, self-worth, and patterns that began with early caregivers.
My training in NeuroAffective Touch informs my attention to the relationship between emotional experience and the body. I currently work online only, so sessions do not involve therapist-provided physical touch.
If you are considering therapy, we can discuss what you are hoping to understand or change and whether my approach is appropriate for you.
Let’s talk
You are welcome to tell me what you are looking for in therapy and ask questions about my practice. This gives us a starting point for considering whether we might work together.
Virtual depth-oriented therapeutic work, including EMDR, for clients in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and all of California.