My Philosophy
There is not a universal approach to personal wellness. My goal is to be effective, and I commit to being flexible and collaborative throughout the therapeutic process. It is my personal philosophy that self-integration and self-esteem are key components to mental health.
I have experience working with diverse populations, including individuals, couples, families, and adults in both inpatient and outpatient levels of care. In my private practice I have supported clients experiencing anxiety, depression, challenges within relationships, and life transitions. Much of my work thus far has been focused on treating existential crises, substance abuse, maladaptive behavioral patterns, and mood dysregulation. I aim to help clients navigate through the world with various techniques and compile eclectic treatment plans tailored to meet each individual’s needs, including but not limited to Cognitive Behavioral, Psychodynamic, and Mindfulness based modalities.
Expertise
1
Mood
Dysregulation
Human emotion can be both a wondrous and murky world to navigate through. I have witnessed an increase of emotional vocabulary and improvement of emotional expression improve peoples’ moods and lives drastically. Anxiety and depression are real, and are also overused terms that if we’re not careful can begin to manifest. For example, while someone may say they feel “depressed” it is not uncommon to actually uncover sadness, guilt, grief, resentment, and more. As with the term anxiety, the emotions below this may be stress, overwhelm, fear, and resistance to vulnerability.
When we begin to uncover the unmet needs of our moods, we can begin to take accountability and make positive change. I can support you through this.
2
Maladaptive
Behavioral Changes
To put it simply, it is adaptive to behave in certain self-preserving ways as children to adapt to what may be a toxic environment. However, as an adult, if those defense mechanisms are no longer necessary or begin to work against you, they become “maladaptive.” We can see this play out in areas such as trust, motivation, process addictions (food, sex, gambling, shopping etc.), avoidance, and more. This can be not doing what you said you would, or doing what you said you would not.
There are specific interventions that can help you realign your actions with your values.
3
Substance
Abuse
Substance abuse has become increasingly woven in our society and families. A chilling statistic was released stating that more adults between the ages of 18 and 45 have died of fentanyl overdoses in 2020 than COVID-19, motor vehicle accidents, cancer and suicide. Alcohol, cocaine, prescription medications, and various illicit substances become introduced to people younger and younger, both directly and through social media.
I have worked with individuals and their families at various stages of change (from “I don’t think this is a problem” to full immersion in AA or other sober communities) and have relationships with various drug and alcohol treatment centers in the event that it becomes unsafe to provide treatment on an outpatient basis.