My Approach to Therapy

My therapy practice is founded upon three core principles that guide my work: prioritize safety, witness the client, and champion healing and growth.

Safe Space. Research shows that feeling safe in the therapy space is vital to outcomes. What does that mean? Of course, I am concerned with physical safety, but emotional, mental, and spiritual as well. Safety in therapy looks like transparency, respect, listening, and honesty. This might be new and scary — usually, we feel safer hiding behind masks or roles in our relationships. For example, do you take care of others’ emotions at the expense of yourself? It will be vital that we first work to release those old coping mechanisms and use adaptive ones instead (i.e. setting and honoring boundaries). You’ll feel my commitment to safety throughout our time together. 

Witnessing You. When was the last time you felt like someone “got” you?  I believe one of the gifts of therapy is the chance to be understood. We all deserve a trustworthy witness to reflect back on things we can not see for ourselves. One of my jobs is to help you know how the context of your life — your upbringing, genes, life experiences — impacts you in the here and now. Your life is a constellation of all the things that happened before. Compassionate witnessing provides you an opportunity to get to know more of your story.

Championing Healing & Growth. This is where the rubber meets the road as they say. Not only am I in the room to help you feel safe and seen, but I am also here to champion meaningful change. Please understand how important your life is - you only get one. I operate from both Humanistic and Attachment-informed lenses while using evidence-based interventions from Cognitive-Behavioral, Acceptance and Commitment, and Internal Family Systems to get things moving. Whether you are looking for new coping mechanisms or want to dig into deeper inner healing work, I will meet you where you are and help you meet your goals.