What is Psychotherapy?

Most people seek therapy with a specific “presenting problem.” I practice with the intention to look at the whole person and help them expand the possibilities for their lives; beyond problem solving and sometimes even beyond their initial understanding of themselves.  Though my own life experience can be conducive to understanding the depths of a patient’s trials, I believe psychotherapy allows us, together, to hold the space of what isn’t known. The relationship between therapist and patient helps make this journey possible. Psychotherapy is less about knowing the answers; it more resembles stumbling in the dark of not knowing, and essential to this process is that you’re not alone.  With a psychotherapist as your guide, some light will begin to shed on the darkness, illuminating the obstacles and allowing for a more full and realized life.

“…I consider nothing that is human alien to me”

—Terentius Lucanus

How I work

My therapy practice is psychodynamic, meaning our work together will be concerned with probing your unconscious motivations and feeling through attendant emotions. While I am familiar with and may employ some elements of behavioral models, my framework for understanding and exploring is primarily Psychoanalytic.

I have experience working with a wide variety of people seeking psychotherapy, however you may specifically benefit from our work together if you identify with one or more of the following groups:

  • Whether you feel attached to a substance or behavior and need guidance in navigating that attachment, or you are practicing abstinence with the help of a 12-Step group, or you are desperate for relief from something you feel powerless over, I am here to meet you where you’re at. I approach these behaviors as I would any relationship you have, in all its complexity, without judgment or prescription.

  • “Eating Disorders”—the umbrella term assigned to comprise Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge-Eating Disorder, Orthorexia, and more—scarcely describes the true nature of these afflictions. Disordered eating can be severely stereotyped while also going unnoticed by many (including oneself), and can manifest at any time for any person. I take a phenomenological attitude toward anything that might be considered “eating-disordered,” prioritizing your subjective experience over any diagnostic formulations to join you in an honest examination of what’s going on.

  • I intimately understand the risks and rewards of offering your embodied self as an instrument for the sake of making art. The crafts of acting and performing are challenging enough to practice and master, let alone the professional tumult, emotional consequences, and social/public minefields that can often feel like par for the course. These vocations can also be lonely, prone to the pitfalls of rivalrous and duplicitous relationships, making it crucial to have a space that you trust to process your experiences and achieve focus and clarity in your artistry.

  • I do not qualify my approach to LGBTQIA+ identifications as either “affirmative” or “exploratory,” but instead prefer to exceed these binary positions to a more constellated landscape of observation and appreciation. I bring this same attitude of inquiry to those identifying as straight/heterosexual or cisgender. Fluidity, experimentation and query are privileged over fetishization, qualification, or justification. Your experience— in all its conviction, confusion, curiosity—is our compass for understanding and action.

    *Including but not limited to identifying as non-binary, trans, cisgender, gender-fluid, gender variant, gender deviant, etc.

    **Including but not limited to identifying as queer, lesbian, gay, straight, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, demisexual, aromatic, polyamorous, BDSM and/or kink practicing, etc.

  • There is not a topic more saturated with opinions than Relationships. While there are theories ad infinitum on how to make relationships “work,” there is also reason to question the expectations of a “relationship” to begin with. Inundated with the assumptions, attitudes, and assessments of others, it can feel impossible to sort out what feels intuitively right for you and your partner(s), your family member(s), or your friend(s). Agreements and promises can be made as easily as feelings can change and get hurt, the pain of which can foreclose any hope of processing and surviving such ruptures. You do not have to remain stuck, give up, or figure it out alone. In fact, you might need an other’s perspective to help you see out of something that you can’t on your own.