I offer individual therapy for adults and adolescents, as well as couples therapy.  I have experience working with people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and ethnicities. While I strive to find the right approach for each particular client, the work tends to involve some combination of examining the past (to gain insight into the origins of unwanted patterns) as well as focusing on current issues and making real changes.

A good relationship with your therapist is the key to success, no matter what style of therapy is practiced. My style is warm and direct and I create an atmosphere of acceptance, compassion, humor and optimism.  I encourage feedback and I believe that therapy should be tailored to meet each individual’s needs.

I received my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of San Francisco and my B.A. in Political Science, Philosophy and Ethics from George Washington University.  I have worked in several mental health settings including public schools and social service agencies and served as Assistant Program Director, and co-facilitator for group clinical supervision at Francisco Connection, Francisco Middle School.

Specialties:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Relationships and Communication Issues

• Grief and Loss

• Sexuality

• Parenting

• Parenting through Separation, Divorce, Remarriage

• Pregnancy

  
  

Services:

Individual Therapy

We all have times when we need help because we are feeling dissatisfied in relationships or anxious or depressed. You may feel like you keep ending up in similar situations or are stuck in old patterns and ways of thinking and behaving that no longer serve you. While we can't change difficult situations of the past, we can work together to better understand and resolve current challenges and obstacles in your life. By applying therapeutic approaches and techniques that are tailored to your needs, we will uncover long-standing behavior patterns or negative perceptions that may be holding you back. I seek to create an empathic environment to help clients feel understood, while also challenging them to go to greater depths by confronting self-defeating or growth inhibiting patterns of relating to self and others.

Couples Therapy

Couples often wonder, usually with a good deal of emotional pain, how their previously happy and joyful relationship turned into the difficult and ungratifying one they have today. Moreover, they may feel they have run out of ideas on how to restore the happiness and fulfillment they once enjoyed together. Couples counseling can help you identify and resolve the conflicts in your relationship – such as communications issues, sexual difficulties, substance abuse, anger, infidelity or parenting challenges – so you can rebuild and reconnect together.

Therapy with Adolescents

I particularly enjoy the challenge of working with teenagers. I have extensive experience working with adolescents ranging from ages ten to eighteen. It is a challenging time in life and it is very common for both parents and adolescents to need some assistance in navigating the physical, emotional and social changes that are happening at rapid speed. My approach combines patience, persistence, directness and humor to facilitate establishing a relationship, even with those who are reluctant to enter therapy. Depending on the situation and age of the adolescent I may also do some sessions alone with the parent(s) or sessions with the family. I have worked with adolescents struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, neglect, substance abuse, sexual assault, truancy, delinquency, violence, gang affiliation, thought disorders, psychosis and sexuality. I believe that a healthy therapeutic relationship can make a tremendous difference and allow an adolescent to better understand their feelings and actions. When they know themselves better it is easier to make better choices and have healthier relationships. 

Parent Coaching

Parenting is a day-by-day – even moment-by-moment – struggle between the values you bring to parenting and the methods you rely on to navigate the day.

Some parents find themselves unsure about why bedtime has become a nightly hour-long battle, or how to handle sleep training, temper tantrums, and separation anxiety. Some struggle to parent a temperamentally challenging child. Still others are looking to bolster their children’s resilience and sense of responsibility as they grow up, and to maintain meaningful connections as their children become teenagers.

Parents may come from very different family cultures and sometimes find themselves at odds with each other on how to make decisions and parent together. Others struggle to share parenting duties, whether they are a single or dual-income family. With divorce, separation, and remarriage come many opportunities to thoughtfully co-parent to meet the needs of children.

Having a parent coach as a trusted partner in working through “this isn’t working” situations can help allow space to figure out why things are challenging, how they need to shift and open up new ideas for making these situations work better. Parent Coaching may be shorter term than traditional therapy and, depending on the situation, can involve one parent, two parents, or step parents.

If you are unsure if your needs will be best met by therapy (for your child, your family, or yourself) or parent coaching, I encourage you to contact me and we can figure it out together.