Opening to Possibility

About the Therapist

I work with adults who function relatively well in life but struggle with chronic anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, or other issues that make life feel harder than it needs to be. Together, we explore how early experiences, relationships, and environments get internalized and show up in daily life — and how to find more freedom in how we respond to ourselves, our relationships, and our lives.

I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 20 years of experience supporting individuals through change, healing, and growth. My clinical career began working with children and adolescents in group homes, locked treatment settings, and urban schools. I later worked with adults involved in the criminal justice system, including managing a contract with Federal Probation in Oakland, California. Across school-based, community, residential, and outpatient settings, I came to understand mental health within the broader context of social, economic, and family systems.

My work is grounded in family systems theory and informed by psychoanalytic, attachment, and Buddhist psychology perspectives. I completed a Master's Degree in integral counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies.  Integral counseling is a holistic and transpersonal approach that understands the individual as a whole-including mind, body, emotions, relationships and spirit.  Additionally, I have sat on numerous silent meditation retreats before and during graduate school.  This practice continues to shape how I work. I draw on internal family systems (IFS), somatic and trauma-informed approaches, and cognitive behavioral therapy, depending on what the client needs.

I know that healing is possible, depression and anxiety do not have to be life sentences, and that emotions live in the body.  At the heart of it all, I help clients build more self-awareness and compassion, curiosity and acceptance — and more room to breathe.  I am passionate about helping people heal from the effects of early developmental trauma and unstable family systems so that they can develop the awareness and skills necessary for attracting, building and maintaining fulfilling relationships. 

I am a member of the the LGBTQ+ community, and my dog, Cash, is almost always in the office with us.