Individual therapy with adolescents, adults and elders

In therapy, we find ways to do two things: act on our desires and live with the impossible problems of life. As we speak to the hidden parts of ourselves, we gain more access to our emotional experience. This allows us to shed whatever has kept us stuck in our ways and, at the same time, it expands our capacity for radical acceptance. This work is sometimes painful but it is oriented, always, towards vitality. I join you in it, as a sensitive and direct listener. I welcome your messiness and darkness while being equally curious about your distinctiveness and creativity. The relationship we develop can be a space of self-observation and experimentation. The purpose is to find a greater sense of connection with ourselves, with others and, finally, with aliveness itself. In other words, the purpose is to feel less lonely in this very alienating world.

Couples, dyadic and family therapy

Our wellbeing depends on the health of our intimate relationships. Couples and families come to therapy hoping to reset a relationship that has become riven with conflict or deadened by disconnection. The therapy works by closely observig problematic dynamics in action. In sessions, we can slow these dynamics down and experiment with something new.

Note: “dyadic” means any pair of people — friends, collaborators, I work with any type of relationship.

About me

I am trained in a contemporary, relational, psychoanalytic approach to therapy. That means our sessions will feel less like a workshop or training and more like an open-ended experience. I bring my whole self, even when I am quiet. The approach is based on the idea that individual symptoms are only durably relieved when the entire person – their life history, social context and body – are considered as a whole. 

Like most therapists, the themes of mood, trauma and grief are pervasive in the work I do. I have a particular focus on:

• Discovery and conflict related to identity or sexuality

• Existential and socio-political burdens

• Aging, illness, disability and health anxiety

• Inhibitions related to desire and creativity

• Pregnancy, infertility and postpartum

Education and Training:

• B.A. in Critical Theory and Social Justice, Occidental College

• M.A. in Counseling Psychology, The Wright Institute

• Practicum and Associateship, Richmond Area Multi-Services, SF High School Wellness Centers

• Clinical Fellow, Access Institute for Psychological Services

• NCSPP’s 2024-2025 Intensive Study Group (ISG), Psychoanalysis: Breakdown & Breakthrough

Professional Affiliations:

• Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology

• Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California

• California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy