Services
Below are my areas of focus. If you’re interested in working together but don’t see your concerns listed, I encourage you to still reach out. I have experience in treating a variety of mental health conditions.
My Specialities
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For clients who desire it, I can offer an approach to therapy that intentionally integrates the Catholic/Christian faith into sessions. This means, in our work together you’ll be seen holistically—body, mind, and soul—and together, we’ll create a therapy process that honors the richness of our faith and your relationship to God so that you can experience healing and flourishing both mentally and spiritually. I am also certified in Catholic Inner Child Work™, which is a type of inner child work that specifically integrates the Catholic/Christian faith.
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I work specifically with individuals who have experienced relational trauma, including childhood abuse (physical, emotional, sexual, or otherwise) and betrayal trauma. I take an attachment-based, relational-focused, and somatic approach to journeying with individuals healing from complex trauma, so that you can uncover a sense of self and safety again.
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To experience wounds from our upbringing is to be human. Even if you might not describe yourself as a person who has experienced trauma, our earliest experiences—for better or worse—shape much of how we relate to others, respond and react, and experiences ourselves, God, and the people around us. Thankfully, these wounds do not have to have the final say in our lives. By taking an approach that honors each individual’s faith, culture, and values, I’ll work with you to heal from childhood wounds while honoring your family and your story.
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Perhaps you’ve heard of attachment styles and the ways they can impact how we show up in our adult romantic relationships. I work with folks who have an anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, or a fearful/disorganized attachment so they can experience the gift of a secure attachment in their most important relationships.
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Whether you feel you can never quite feel at ease in your own body, you struggle to relax, hold fear for the future, or worry about what others truly think of you, we can address your anxiety in a way that both gives you practical tools to cope while also getting the root causes underneath your anxiety. In other words, my aim is to help you break free from living bound by the chains of anxiety, not just how to make the chains more comfortable.
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Perhaps you’ve already received an Autism or ADHD diagnosis. Perhaps you have sensory sensitivities or a sensory processing or integration disorder. Maybe you don’t have a diagnosis but suspect the way you experience yourself, relationships, and the world around you is unique. Wherever you find yourself, I’ll support you in honoring the unique and beautiful way you were created as we help you reach your goals. I also work with parents, spouses, and family members of neurodivergent individuals.
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We were made to be in relationships, yet often times relationships can be some of our greatest stressors and sources of emotional pain. I walk with individuals navigating challenging relationships with their parents, children and adult children, spouses and significant others, friends, and coworkers/bosses. Together, we’ll help you get clear on your values in relationships, identify healthy boundaries while supporting you in living in alignment with your faith and culture, heal from relationship wounds, and learn how to repair well in your relationships so that conflicts can be overcome and wounds can be healed.
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Maybe your thoughts race and never seem to turn off, or you constantly feel tension in your shoulders, back, or jaw. Maybe you don’t really think you’re an angry person, but you snap easily at the ones you love and say words in the heat of the moment that you wish you could take back. Maybe when you’re in conflict, your mind goes blank, or you just try to avoid conflict at all costs. For your child or teen, maybe this looks like intense meltdowns, yelling, and talking back, or withdrawing, isolating, and showing little to no motivation. I’ll help you (or your child or teen) make sense of your emotions and learn how to engage with and respond to them in healthy ways so that you feel more like you and your relatonships can thrive.
Individual Adult Therapy
Designed for adults ages 18+, individual therapy will help you work through wounds from the past so you can experience true freedom, healing, and the restoration of your true identity
Teen Therapy
Designed for teens ages 13-17, therapy for teens focuses on fostering greater self-awareness and self-compassion to improve a teen’s relationship to themselves and to others
Play Therapy
Designed for children ages 3-13, play therapy focuses on facilitating the conditions necessary for children to work through emotional issues in their natural language of play
Group Therapy
Designed for those already in individual therapy who are seeking connection with others who have similar stories or struggles, group therapy facilitates the development of relational skills in a supportive environment
My Approach to Therapy
I draw from a variety of depth- and insight-oriented therapeutic theories in working with clients. All are trauma-informed and aimed at facilitating deep, sustained change. Every person is unique, so though my approach will draw from these frameworks, I’ll tailor the process to your needs and what is most supportive for you.
Psychodynamic
What It Is: Exploring the unconscious mind and making the unconscious conscious so we can intentionally choose how we live and act, rather than reacting
What It Looks Like: I’ll offer observations that highlight unconscious patterns, reflecting back to you themes I see in what you share, and gently highlight how behavioral and relational patterns that exist in your life outside of therapy are present in the therapy process too.
Trauma-Informed & Somatic-Focused
What It Is: An approach that holds at the forefront the way trauma impacts the body and nervous system
What It Looks Like: We’ll focus on how the body sends signals as the first communications of how we feel, so that you don’t just talk about your feelings, but there is real accessing, expressing, and processing that supports them coming to a place of resolve and healing. We’ll go at your own pace, honor your autonomy every step of the way, and identify ways to move through emotions and experiences that get stuck in the body so you can work with your body instead of against it.
Inner Child Work
What It Is: Connecting with the ‘younger version of you’ that lives inside of you—the collection of memories, experiences, wounds, desires, unmet needs, and fears—and tending to him or her to experience healing of past hurts and the meeting of emotional needs
What It Looks Like: I’ll guide you through imagery exercises to engage with your inner child so you develop awareness of his or her needs and hurts, then I’ll support you in identifying how to tend to those needs and hurts. If you’re a person of faith seeking integration of this into therapy, this is a place where we’ll do that too, in exploring where true sonship or daughterhood is found.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
What It Is: A trauma-informed, experiential approach to self-exploration that understands people as being made up of many parts. Ever seen Inside Out? It’s kind of like that! In befriending our parts, we can engage with ourselves with greater compassion and less shame, which promotes more sustained healing.
What It Looks Like: I’ll guide you through identifying, naming, understanding, and tending to the various parts of yourself so that you can tap into them when needed, but ultimately live from a place of true, core self—one that is curious, compassionate, calm, and centered.
Attachment
What It Is: A theory that understands how our earliest relationships with our caregivers shape the ways we relate to others as adults.
What It Looks Like: We’ll explore together what your attachment style is, how it was formed in early childhood, and how it is showing up in your relationships today. Therapy will provide a space for you to experience a secure attachment and work through attachment wounds so that you can start identifying your attachment needs, experience them being met, and begin to practice healthier ways of relating to others in your life.
Relational & Interpersonal Neurobiology
What It Is: An approach to therapy that understands how the brain is wired, what shapes and changes that wiring, and how relationships—more than anything else—impact the brain’s functioning and therefore our thoughts, feelings, and ways of relating to others today
What It Looks Like: I see you as the expert of your own self and story, with myself as a fellow journeyer and compassionate witness. I’ll bring my warmth, humor, and authentic self to sessions, so you can feel the freedom to do so as well. I’ll share in sessions how the brain works so that you can understand how your past experiences are impacting you today. Then, through the experience of building a safe connection in therapy and supportive relationships in your life, we’ll support the re-wiring of your brain to promote health and healing.
Narrative
What It Is: An approach to therapy that builds on attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology, narrative therapy knows that when we tell an emotion-laden story with words, we integrate parts of the brain that were previously disconnected, which ultimately promotes healing
What It Looks Like: We’ll identify the beliefs you hold in the stories—both conscious and unconscious—that you’ve told yourself as a result of past experiences. We’ll collaborate to re-write old narratives into stories that are not only more helpful but are more true, ensuring they are rooted in the truth of your deepest identity.
For Couples: Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
What It Is: An experiential, attachment-focused couples therapy centered on facilitating new relational patterns within the therapy room
What It Looks Like: We won’t just just talk about what feels off in your relationship; we’ll create new, safer patterns between you and your partner in real time. We’ll come to understand how the current dynamic that exists between the two of you is the problem, not either of you. We’ll identify the core fears, needs, and past wounds that show up within your current dynamic, then address these in practical ways so that both you and your partner feel empowered to name your needs, stay regulated in conflict, and draw closer to each other when things get hard.
For Kiddos: Child-Centered Play Therapy
What It Is: “Play is the language of children, and toys are their words.” -Gary Landreth
Play therapy is an evidence-based, child-led approach to therapy for kids, guided by a therapist trained in facilitating that process, which allows children to work through underlying emotional concerns to promote behavioral change, increased self-esteem, and greater ability to regulate and express themselves
What It Looks Like: Your child can choose to play with whatever they’d like to in session, and coping skills will be taught and modeled within the context of play. The skills I’ll use support your child in their processing and healing are skills I’ll also teach you in our parent sessions, so that you can continue to support your child at home.