Some pains need to be shared in order to be healed, and often these are precisely the ones that are hard to share because of shame, anxiety, and trauma.
I offer people a place to speak what is hard to say, feel what is hard to feel, and listen to what is hard to hear in themselves.
SERVICES
THERAPY FOR ADULTS
A good therapeutic relationship allows people to explore the ways in which their early life shapes, nourishes and limits their current one. In our work together, I aim to help you better understand your emotional and somatic experience as well as patterns in work and relationships. Over time, in part by putting words to confusing or painful experiences, therapy can allow people to work through vicious cycles and develop more flexible responses to old triggers. It can even help people find humor and curiosity for themselves where there was once shame and self-punishment.
THERAPY FOR CHILDREN
Children can benefit from therapy with me when something is getting in the way of their capacities to play, to learn, or to socialize. Sometimes the cause is clear - a recent loss or disruption, an illness or traumatic shock. Sometimes the cause is inchoate or unknown. Through child-centered play therapy I work to help children develop ways, through play and through words, to describe overwhelming feelings, place traumatic events into digestible narratives, and replenish their capacity to play and connect to other children and adults.
No one knows your child better than you, and so my work with children includes the participation of their parents or caregivers. We will likely meet, perhaps more than once, before my first session with your child, so that I may gather information and develop a plan and goals for the therapy with you. I have three years of experience as a therapist in elementary schools in San Francisco. This experience helps me work with your child's teachers and school administrators when such collaborations would be helpful.
THERAPY FOR ADOLESCENTS
Adolescence, a period of so much transition, is often a complex time for parents and teens as they struggle with changes in their relationship. Many teens can benefit from having a third space - separate from family and school - in which to reflect and develop.
My work with adolescents is not so different from my work with adults, in that my first aim is usually to help them find words for their experience, and in so doing to develop their own voice and sense of self. I work with teens who are having issues with self-esteem and self-image, are developing their sexual or gender identity, are having academic struggles, are dealing with a transition, loss or shock, are feeling depressed or socially isolated.
My work with adolescents involves their parents or guardians and I will typically meet with you first to gather information. Adolescents can often benefit from having a private space in which to talk and feel through their own sense of themselves and their independent lives. With that in mind one of the goals for therapy we will likely discuss is how to foster communication between parents and their teenaged children.