my approach to therapy & Mentorship

I subscribe to the idea that collaboration and education are key to healing, recovery, and lasting change. So actively engaging in the therapeutic conversation together and dipping in and out of psycho-education with you is meant to reinforce your sense of personal agency. We want to enhance your experience of true choice, not bound choice, and encourage going at a pace that supports integrating real change. That’s central to growing a life of well-being.

In relationship focused work or couple’s therapy, we’d aim to hold two things simultaneously - to honor your own individual way in the world, while encouraging becoming more accepting of someone else’s individuality. That’s not the same as accepting unacceptable behavior. It’s ultimately about discerning between what we can’t change, and accepting what we can. For many of us, relearning trust is isn’t just about trusting someone else to be emotionally safe and sound for us. It’s about becoming the manager of our own serenity and ideally, respecting that others have the right to do so as well even in the face of disappointment, change, or grief.

You are the expert of your own experience. I want to learn along side you about how your ways of adapting have helped you navigate living with hurt. Understanding your choices as adaptive helps us contextualize your life with some compassion.

Therapeutic goals might look like…

• setting boundaries and identifying needs more clearly,

• identifying strategies for holistic self-care,

• setting realistic expectations,

• catching biases or assumptions more quickly,

• reframing fears, or taking healthy risks in service to your core values.

Psycho-education helps to contextualize our experiences, choices, and stories. It can also help us to take things less personally, which can lighten the spirit of grief. We will explore what influences identity development, understand the projection process in relationship, consider what has influenced your sense of place and personhood in the world. It is so important to the healing process to see with kind eyes what the heart and body require for safe keeping.

Topics can include…

• what it’s like being neurodiverse while adapting to neurotypical systems,

• understanding the elements of religious abuse,

• what is complex trauma; narcissistic, toxic, or emotionally immature relationship patterns versus pathology.

• We might reflect on the dynamics of systemic oppression and/or addiction in your family system or intimate relationship(s). These have an enormous influence on how we love, experience power and the exchange of it, and how accessible either of these ultimately feel to us.

EDUCATION
Washington State License #: LH60830622
MA, Counseling Psychology; Saybrook University
BA, Literature with a focus in Social Psychology; UNC Asheville

SPECIALIZATION
Psychodynamic mentorship and consultation on character structure, ethics of practice, and social justice in psychotherapy with Dr. K. Alex Onno, PhD, 2013 - Present
Use of evidence-based practices for the assessment and treatment of trauma, anxiety, and anxiety related disorders: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy; and Mindful Self-compassion Training (with Dr.’s Christopher Germer, PhD, and Kristin Neff, PhD).
Ongoing training and study in psychoanalytic theories.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Counseling Association
Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study
Washington Mental Health Counselor’s Association
Counselors for Social Justice