Many people I work with are high-functioning in some areas of their lives yet feel stuck or waylaid by painful or confusing habits, emotions, and interpersonal patterns. Some come with new mental health challenges; others bring longstanding diagnoses.

Effective therapy can help loosen the reflexes we’ve developed to attack, escape, or manage ourselves (and others) as we work to better understand and more fully inhabit parts of ourselves that may be painful to acknowledge, hard to feel, or seem to be missing altogether.

Therapy can help us make better use of our emotional turmoil, and the confusion, lack of control, and despair it generates. It can help us enjoy a fuller range of emotions, be more truthful with ourselves, and engage more genuinely in relationships. In short, it can help make the difficult and never-ending task of being ourselves more honest, fulfilling, and pleasurable.

I also help couples who are entrenched in destructive patterns and those who wish to navigate their relationship with more ease, curiosity, and mutual recognition. Sometimes the relationship has become saturated with blame, mistrust, and the feeling of no longer wanting to try to stay connected. Often, couples just want to change something about the dynamic, but aren’t sure how to change or why it’s so hard.

Clients describe me as funny, relaxed, direct yet non-directive, able to see many different sides, and willing to apologize when I get it wrong. I don’t just “sit there,” but am very attuned to nonverbal communication and expression. I listen to what my clients say and to what they may not yet be able to say.

While my foundation is psychodynamic, I believe there is no single “best” psychotherapeutic approach and I work differently with different clients. At the same time, I believe that every good treatment requires honesty, curiosity, and patience.