I came to psychotherapy a bit later in life, both personally and professionally. My experience of participating in my own psychotherapy led me to fully believe in the transformational power of this work. Understanding my need to explore my internal world had a significant impact on me as an educator. Having worked for 13+ years as a teacher, I came to see the need for integrating social emotional learning into the curriculum for my students. Through my personal exploration and facilitation of mindfulness and emotional exploration in the classroom I felt more engaged, energized and connected to both myself and the world than I had ever been before. It became clear to me that this was my calling. I took the courageous leap of changing careers and have not looked back.
While my approach is based in Gestalt and Existential Therapies, I have studied many other modalities and draw from a variety of approaches such as attachment theory, psychodynamics, and transpersonal psychology to name a few. I believe that my clients are dynamic beings and therefore there is no one size fits all approach to therapy. I work intuitively, drawing from my toolbox the technique that best fits the need of my client in the present moment. I am curious about how each of my clients experience the world and I work holistically, attending to not only their psychological experience, but also their physical, emotional, and spiritual experiences. I find that my clients come to therapy wanting a different experience from the one they are currently having, bringing with them a wide range of concerns or issues that they want to work on. My intent is to provide a nonjudgmental and empathic space to support my clients in the courageous act of discovering who they really are. I see myself as both a witness and co-creator of the client’s therapeutic experience, walking with my clients on the path to self-discovery.
I am a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. I hold a master’s degree in integral counseling psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. I trained at the Church Street Integral Counseling Center, counseling individuals and studying gestalt therapy. I am now a therapist with Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center.
