I'm a telehealth therapist serving clients living in California. I provided in-person therapy for years with clients and when I transitioned to exclusively telehealth clients started making more progress being in their own safe spaces for their therapy sessions
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California, meaning that is the state in which I am licensed to see clients in. Because of this, I am only allowed to see clients who live in the state of California. If you do not live in California, sadly, I am not able to work with you in a therapeutic relationship. Please sign up for my email list to learn about more future opportunities from me!
I do all of my sessions through a HIPPA compliant, HITRUST certified video program, Simple Practice video. It’s easy: you receive a link before your session, you click into it at our session time, and we do the session. Easy-peasy. Why do telehealth if you can see a therapist in person? Multiple research studies have shown that the effectiveness of telehealth therapy is the same as in-person treatment. It was amazing to see how effective it was for clients to practice their new skills in the session in the exact same place they would be when they experienced their triggers later. Like a sort of state-dependent learning. Doing telehealth therapy cuts down on costs and time of transportation and travel and extra added time to childcare. I believe the technical process of therapy should be convenient and easy and secure.
Through working with me, you will get free access to your client portal - which is an AMAZING tool that will allow you to see your appointments, manage your payment cards, view all of your billing statements, access a link to your virtual appointments, receive reminder texts and emails, and complete your intake paperwork, all through a virtual, HIPPA compliant website and app. I love it because I believe the technical process of therapy should be convenient and easy and secure.
Current client? Access your client portal HERE →
Do you find yourself in looping, ruminating thoughts about the same things over and over again? Do you have excessive doubts that just drive you crazy? (“Why did I say that?” “Do they hate me?” “Why didn’t they text me back?” “Did I leave my door unlocked?” “What if I’m not good at my job?” “What was that feeling I just had in my chest?” “Am I okay?” etc.). Perhaps your anxiety gets so big that you lean into avoidance to cope (maybe you say to yourself, ‘yup, I’m going to put off that email for just one more day…’ or ‘I don’t really want to go to that party anyway’). ALL of this can lead to patterns of isolation, procrastination, perfectionism, and more doubt. These ‘loops’ can just drive people crazy. And for good reason. It’s crazy making and exhausting to be stuck in this constant cycle of anxiety and doubt, with resolutions that seem to only be temporary or make your world smaller and less joyful.
Want to know the really, really good news? This is HIGHLY TREATABLE, with extremely HIGH SUCCESS RATES, when the correct treatment methods are applied. YES, you read that right! The research shows you CAN get better, and there is a clear roadmap toward a life filled with peace. We can do this!
I have training in two leading therapies for treating Anxiety, OCD, Panic, Phobias, and Social Anxiety: Inference - Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Both of these therapies are backed up by many research studies proving their effectiveness in treating these conditions. Additionally, I have training in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), which is a research-based theory that combines neuroscience, attachment science, experiential learning, and the incredible plasticity of our brains. I will draw from different research-based methods depending on what is in the best interest in the healing of the client.
Trauma is a passion of mine to talk about and to treat. In my book with Jennine Estes, “Help for High Conflict Couples,” one of my favorite chapters is the one on trauma. This is because trauma is so highly painful and can seep into every area of one's experience of their life, and yet it is so HIGHLY treatable. People with trauma tend to feel as though their bodies can get hijacked from them when a trigger knowingly or unknowingly gets stepped on, and they are taken for a ride into a state of fight or flight. This can leave people feeling disoriented, confused, on high alert, stressed, untrusting, or even angry. Trauma is like wearing sunglasses constantly - your entire experience is tinted through the lens of this experience. Through trauma therapy, the sunglasses get removed, and you can begin to see your experience and your life clearly again.
Trauma is nuanced and doesn’t just mean a single big ‘life or death’ experience like a car accident or experiencing a natural disaster - although maybe you have experienced that - but it can also mean being exposed to years of emotional or verbal abuse or neglect, abusive relationships, bullying, health trauma, a parent with a mental illness, a traumatic birth, etc.: it means an experience that left a significant imprint on your mind, brain, and body.
Together, we can safely and effectively work through your experiences with an empowering approach, where we use research-based therapies to get your mind, brain, and body back again. No more getting hijacked, no more seeing the world through a tinted lens and thinking that that is reality. People tend to find so much peace and healing in the beginning of treatment where we simply begin to understand what happened to them and make sense of the impact it is having now. This can lead to “ah hah!” moments that shift peoples perspectives, and things start to click and make sense. My hope is that you are feeling the hope already. Many therapies have been proven through research to be highly effective in treating trauma, and I draw from these such approaches, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as well as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), which is a research-based theory that combines neuroscience, attachment science, experiential learning, and the incredible plasticity of our brains, and Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), which is another research-based theory that combines attachment theory, neuroscience, and experiential learning.
Wanna know the really, really good news? This is HIGHLY TREATABLE, with extremely HIGH SUCCESS RATES, when the correct treatment methods are applied. YES, you read that right! The research shows you CAN get better, and there is a clear roadmap toward a life filled with peace. We can do this!
I have training in two leading therapies for treating Anxiety, OCD, Panic, Phobias, and Social Anxiety: Inference - Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Both of these therapies are backed up by many research studies proving their effectiveness in treating these conditions. Additionally, I have training in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), which is a research-based theory that combines neuroscience, attachment science, experiential learning, and the incredible plasticity of our brains. I will draw from different research-based methods depending on what is in the best interest in the healing of the client.
Whether your relationship is in a hard place, and coming to therapy is your ultimatum for your partner or your ‘last straw’ before the relationship ends, or you have a good connection that you just want to make even better, couples therapy can help. I have extensive training in research based therapies such as Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, which has a 90% success rate for couples who try it. As a therapist who truly wants to help, I really like those odds. I even used my expertise in Emotionally Focused Therapy to write a book alongside my coauthor Jennine Estes “Help for High Conflict Couples: Using Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Science of Attachment to Build Lasting Connections.” Since I began in the therapy field, working with relationships has been a focus and a passion of mine.
I also have training from world renowned therapists Drs. John and Julie Gottman in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, another research based therapy technique proven to help couples reach their goals. I worked for The Gottman Institute, one of the world's leading research institutes for love and relationships, for years - where I was immersed in their research and methods, which is now an ingrained part of how I work with my couples clients.
CONGRATULATIONS, not only on your engagement, but also on this amazing choice you are making to care for your relationship from the beginning in the most intentional way!!! Research shows that couples who engage in premarital counseling have a reduced likelihood of future divorce AND higher relationship quality than couples who do not do premarital counseling. So let’s get started!!! I love doing premarital counseling and I have even been invited to weddings as a result of the fantastic work that has been done in these sessions (Don’t worry, that is not required)!
I will use research based therapies such as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Gottman Method Couples Therapy to teach communication tips, tricks, and tools, set up healthy expectations, understand your unique attachment styles and how they intersect to avoid roadblocks, focus on movement towards healthy attachment styles with each other, explore your combined (and separate) values, and cultivate meaningful compromises, all while focusing mainly on you two connecting through practicing and exploring deeper emotional intimacy. These sessions are connecting, vibrant, and explorative.
Are you so sick of dating? Maybe, you find yourself getting pulled into the same type of unhealthy relationship over and over again? Or do all of your ex’s resemble each other in a way you don’t quite understand or like? Or maybe, you have a really hard time connecting with others, and the thought of one more "small talk" conversation with a new bumble date over a happy hour makes you want to puke. Perhaps past partners have called you ‘distant,’ or you are getting the sense that when you date, nothing seems to go anywhere or work out. These are all different themes and questions that are addressed in my dating and attachment therapy sessions. We can dive into your personalized attachment style, curate ways to create a more successful (known as ‘secure’) attachment style in your own life, and I can help you learn how to look for potential partners that have a secure attachment style (hint: yes, there are things you can look out for on your dates).
We can begin to identify your patterns that keep you stuck, and begin to use the power of neuroscience to help you start to build up the tools and ability to make different patterns for yourself moving forward. I do this through using a number of different research-based therapies focused on attachment, such as Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), which is a research-based technique focused on harnessing the power of attachment science and experiential learning, as well as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), which is a research-based theory that combines neuroscience, attachment science, experiential learning, and the incredible plasticity of our brains.
When people ask you, “Hey! How are you doin’?” Are you frozen trying to understand how you are actually feeling? Do you feel numb inside? Has your partner, friends, or family members ever felt like it’s hard to emotionally connect with you? Or maybe you do have one feeling: that emotions are useless, never to be explored, and you sure don’t want to deal with them.
This is all way more common than you think! And the truth? Emotional repression doesn’t work. It actually takes a tremendous amount of glucose in your brain to repress emotions, when that energy could be outsourced to other places. Additionally, emotional repression can make emotions worse - and like a volcano, the lava will come out one way or another. Sometimes, when emotions are repressed, they can seep out in less helpful and subconscious ways that can make us worse off.
“Emotion Coaching” is a term coined by Drs. John Gottman, who I had the pleasure of working for in my past before starting at a private therapy practice. It is used to describe a method used to increase emotional intelligence, emotional awareness, and emotional understanding and regulation. It is commonly used as a parenting technique, as ideally children are raised with this Emotion Coaching from the start, as research has backed it up with some pretty remarkable outcomes.
But what if you are an adult, who did not experience “Emotion Coaching” parents? That’s where I come in. I will use Gottman Method research and Emotion Coaching, alongside other emotionally-focused therapies such as Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), both of which are also attachment based and experiential therapies. Combined, these research based approaches allow us to meet the goals of Emotion Coaching at any age.
If you find yourself in relationships being the “people pleaser,” the “everything’s fine!” kinda person, the “fixer” or “rescuer,” or in a pattern of feeling responsible (or “bad”) for other people, it’s time to explore the role that codependency may be playing in your life. Codependency is important to get treatment for because it is extremely painful to be trapped in - as it is literally impossible to control other people, people are left in an impossible state of pain, cycling around trying to control things that are inherently uncontrollable while simultaneously feeling more emotionally out of control. This responsibility feels heavy. It feels unbearable. And it can also at times feel impossible to stop. Codependency is truly relationship poison - it is toxic, deteriorates relationships, security, identity, independence and true emotional intimacy.
Together, we can first understand where your codependent patterns stem from, understand their function, and dismantle these patterns while simultaneously creating new, healthy patterns that will serve as your new framework for healthy relationships. You will start to breathe easier. People tend to start to feel less anxiety, freer, less responsibility, more sense of self and identity, more empowered, and deeper love and connection with themselves and others. I will do this through harnessing the power of attachment science, neuroscience, and the brains amazing power of plasticity through using experiential research-based therapeutic techniques such as Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). *Note that working on codependency therapy can be done individually or in the context of couples therapy.*
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Coauthored with Jennine Estes Powell, LMFT, Help for High-Conflict Couples: Using Emotionally Focused Therapy & the Science of Attachment to Build Lasting Connections draws insights from the research-backed theory of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and combines cutting-edge neuroscience, the amazing plasticity of the human brain, and the strength of attachment and love into a powerful formula for change.
The book is packaged into an easy-to-digest guidebook, filled with experiential exercises and real-life client stories, and includes a foreword by the creator of Emotionally Focused Therapy herself, Sue Johnson.
