Therapeutic Approach
I provide a compassionate, thoughtful, and caring space in which together we untangle the difficult aspects of your history and/or current situation that are barriers to greater happiness and fulfillment. I’m primarily an experiential, emotion-focused therapist, and my overarching goal is to help you explore, nurture, and connect more deeply with your authentic self. In doing so, you’ll be able to align more fully with your true wants, needs, and values, and you’ll be empowered to make new choices that will feel healing, healthy, and enlivening.
In addition to my experiential, emotion-focused training, I am trained in Interpersonal Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and MDMA-Assisted Therapy (note that MDMA-assisted therapy is not yet available in the US).
I aim to work with you in the way that fits you best, so I tailor my approach to support your goals. While I find that more complete symptom relief tends to come from deeper therapy work, I work at whatever level is your preference and fits your style or situation. I’m happy to work with you in a short-term or long-term therapy framework.
Education & Professional Background
I received my Ph.D in Clinical Psychology in 1995 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. I completed a 2-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the Stanford University Medical Center and then accepted a tenure track faculty position teaching Counseling Psychology to Masters’ students at Santa Clara University.
While I enjoyed teaching, I found my greatest fulfillment in being a psychotherapist, so after two years of teaching I resigned from my faculty position and returned to full-time clinical work.
Working with the university community has long been my primary focus. I’ve served as a staff psychologist at the campus counseling centers of Montana State University, Penn State University, Santa Clara University and Cornell University. I left on-campus work in 2002 and have been working in private practice with the Cornell University community since. It remains joyful, meaningful work, and I feel privileged to spend my time doing it.