As a therapist, I welcome feedback, and view our relationship as an integral part of the therapeutic process. I help people with a variety of goals: to live well, to create oneself, to understand more deeply and grow, and to cultivate the kinds of relationships that give life meaning and joy. A therapeutic partnership allows us to explore our patterns of living—of thinking, relating, communicating, and behaving—and remake them to make life more satisfying. I partner with adults and adolescents who face anxiety, depression, addiction, stress, family conflict and challenging phase-of-life transitions. People also partner with me during crises in relationships, identity, and consciousness.
The passion I bring to my work as a therapist is based on this deep curiosity for understanding the world in front of me and the dynamics of how we relate to one another.
I view people as complex and deserving of respect, dignity, and compassion, and I bring a decade of clinical experience into our relationship. I understand the strength it takes to show up for a session when you’d rather be anywhere else than talking about your hardships. I respect if trust doesn’t come easily, and I will do my best to earn and keep yours. I empathize with wanting to seem put-together and “fine” while keeping the more vulnerable parts of yourself hidden. I’ll stand by you in some of your toughest moments and I’ll celebrate with you when you feel yourself making changes you thought were impossible.
I opened the doors to my Private Practice in Beacon in 2019 and after some time felt it would be important to have other specialists on my team to offer more clinical support in the community. Upstate Therapy Group is made up of hard working, like-minded, smart, thoughtful clinicians who came together to help better the place where we live: the Hudson Valley. My clinical trainings include Functional Family Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and most recently I am a candidate in Psychoanalytic Training at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
I believe that strong and sustainable therapeutic relationships must have a foundation of trust and understanding. I appreciate that finding a new therapist or perhaps entering therapy for the first time can be daunting. We will spend the first few sessions getting a sense of what working with one another would feel like, and setting goals for our time together. You will also be given a safe and supportive space to begin to share your story with an understanding that we are all made up of different parts of ourselves - some that are easier to share than others. As the therapeutic partnership continues, I will play an active role in our sessions.
I strive to cultivate a strong working relationship that is based in trust and understanding.
I have worked with diverse populations in four New York City hospitals, including two Veterans Hospitals. In these settings, I worked on a bone marrow transplant team, on an Alzheimer’s Disease research project, in a Victim Services Program, and in an outpatient Mental Health and PTSD clinic serving veterans of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I am skilled in supporting individuals and their family members in navigating and processing some of the most challenging experiences and transitions in their lives.
I am trained in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy through the American Institute for Psychoanalysis, and use my extensive personal and professional experience to support individuals in their late teens through older adulthood who are looking to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. I work with individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, stressful life transitions, chronic illness, end of life care, dangerous relationships, and the effects of trauma. My treatment draws on techniques from psychodynamic psychotherapy and relational therapy.
On a personal level, I was born and raised in the Hudson Valley. I have lived in Costa Rica’s central valley, in New England, and in New York City. I am happy to be back home in the Hudson Valley where I enjoy lifting weights, practicing Spanish, and being outdoors with my husband and two children.
Octavia Butler put it very well: “hidden within change is surprise, delight, confusion, pain, discovery, loss, opportunity, and growth.” I’m here to help you shape that change, by giving you time, space, and guidance as you need, to find obstacles and ways through them—and to help you bear the pain that comes with change, as you grow into a life you can explore and enjoy. Through exploring your history and present conflicts in a secure environment, you gain insight, self-acceptance, choice instead of repetition, a voice that feels authentic, and the ability to tolerate discomfort and uncertainty.
I believe everyone deserves support and the chance to flourish. Together, we can build a deep understanding of your history, exploring in a safe harbor the experiences, relationships, thoughts, and feelings that shape your life. This practice can change your view of the past, present, and future, shifting old patterns, allowing you more openness, awareness, and clarity.
Living life involves creativity, spontaneity, and autonomy: the sense that we are free, within limits we can accept, to make our own lives. My goal is to help you find that kind of freedom: the ability to love and work (and play is a kind of work) in ways that feel nourishing and real. As a social worker I am trained to see a person in their environment and to meet them where they are. With psychodynamic psychotherapy, mindfulness-based CBT, EMDR, and other modalities, we can work together to help you find a way toward health that feels true to you.