How I Think About Therapy

My work as a psychotherapist begins with how I think about emotional life and development — and how experiences across the lifespan shape the ways we as individuals relate to ourselves and others.

While symptoms on their own are worthy of attention, I try to view them less in isolation and more in the context they appear. Depression, anxiety, relational difficulties, and parenting concerns are often meaningful responses to lived experience — signals that something important has been carried, adapted to, or left unspoken.

Therapy offers a space to pause, wonder and make sense of these experiences together. When emotional life has space to be known and understood rather than judged or hidden, development tends to begin to move again.

Working With Children, Adolescents, and Parents

Children and adolescents experience emotional distress differently than adults. Changes in behavior, mood, and functioning often reflect developmental strain rather than intentional difficulty.

My work with young people is grounded in careful attention to developmental stage, emotional expression, and relational context. I also collaborate closely with parents, helping them understand their child’s experience while supporting their own confidence and clarity.

Parent consultation can be especially helpful during periods of transition, uncertainty, or concern about a child’s emotional well-being.

Working With Adults

Adults often come to therapy feeling emotionally depleted, anxious, disconnected, or caught in patterns that no longer fit. Many are functioning outwardly while quietly struggling inside.

In adult therapy, I focus on helping people understand how emotional weight has accumulated over time, how relationships and roles have shaped their inner world, and how new ways of relating to themselves and others can emerge.

Qualifications and Experience

My professional psychotherapy training began in studies of the art and science of Marriage and Family Therapy, (MFT) for which I earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. That education built of prior experiences, including traveling widely and working as in-home nurse and nanny. Since licensure as an MFT in 2000,  I have provided psychotherapy for adults, couples, families, teens, children and parents in private practice, a women’s clinic, teen programs, IOP, PHP and in-patient settings. I co-created and facilitated a outpatient hospital program providing individualized therapy and structured coping skills for adults, 18-years and up. In 2015 I completed an rigorous advanced training program in theory and clinical practice, and achieved qualification as a psychoanalyst. More recently,  I became a consulting analyst and a personal training analyst,  at SFCP   , where I am on the faculty.