How I Can Help
Anxiety
Worry has an important purpose, but when it grows too big or shows up too often, it strains relationships and gets in the way of living life in satisfying ways. My approach to anxiety focuses on identifying where worry is showing up, deciding how much power it gets to have, moving worry outside of the self, and allowing you to respond to worry more effectively. My goal is to help you reduce the distress and disruption that worry causes so you can engage more fully and consistently in what matters to you. My approach to anxiety includes specialized training in Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), an evidence-based approach for treating childhood anxiety through parent-based intervention.
Holding it together
Sometimes those who most appear to have it “together” are also those struggling the most, with their successes leaving them feeling undeserving of help or confused by their feelings of loneliness, detachment, or dissatisfaction with life. I work with high-functioning individuals struggling with vulnerability, anxiety, expressing their needs and feelings, setting boundaries, people pleasing, and connecting in satisfying and meaningful ways with others. Together we can gently look at the capable exterior that allows you to thrive on paper, and at the wants, needs, and sense of self that may have gotten lost behind it.
Parenting can be a profound source of joy, stress, anger, confusion, grief, and shame. I partner with parents to work through their experiences as they encounter behavioral challenges, illnesses, relational tensions, co-parenting stressors, and inevitable conflicts and stressors. As a licensed school psychologist, I'm also well-equipped to help families figure out how to navigate the challenges, emotions, and practicalities of working with schools.
Parenting & Family Life
Sometimes bodies do things that feel like betrayal, not working or looking the way they once did and forcing us to adjust to new routines, sensations, capacities, obligations, and expectations. I bring extensive experience partnering with medical teams to support individuals and families through illness, chronic pain, and health changes, with specialized work in diabetes, functional symptoms, oncology, body image, weight management, medical trauma, and grief.
Health, Pain, & Illness
Moving through the world with a neurodivergent brain takes effort that is often unrecognized. I support neurodivergent children, teens, and adults managing the exhaustion of navigating taxing spaces, and the shame and self-criticism that happens when you are trying so hard and still not able to do what the world expects. The therapy space can be one for skill building, learning new ways to share your needs with others, working through the emotions you experience, or considering where you want to advocate for support.
I also work with parents and families. A diagnosis can bring relief, grief, worry, guilt, confusion, and overwhelm. I partner with families to build understanding, to hold your child as an individual, and to find the balance between seeking accommodations and empowering your child to move effectively through their world. We can work to examine the feelings that can come up when your child experiences things differently than you do, as well as what comes up when you recognize some of your own ways of being in your child. Some of this work involves naming and grieving often unspoken expectations, ultimately making room for your child to experience a life that is satisfying for them.