Let’s get to heart of the matter so you may experience lasting and meaningful change.
Who I work with I work therapeutically from a place of deep compassion with the goal of restoring connection and trust in yourself. With a trauma informed approach, my clients know me for my faith in their innate ability to heal, my groundedness and humor. Together we work to understand what is holding you in pain so you can find and feel lasting relief. I utilize a holistic approach that is psychoanalytically informed, psychodynamic/relational and utilizes mindfulness, EMDR and parts work. Your mind, body and spirit are here to communicate what needs to be tended to for well-being. I aim to listen closely and get to the heart of the matter with you so we may collaboratively create lasting and meaningful change.
I specialize in working with adult children of emotionally immature parents including narcissists. I’m also an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) therapist in that I am a fellow HSP myself and work with HSP’s and the issues they encounter. I work to empower you with resilience and an understanding of your emotions and sensitivities so you may utilize this valuable part of yourself to create the life you want to live.
Some folks come just wanting to do EMDR. Other clients experience a hybrid of talk therapy along with EMDR that allows for the processing of trauma while also experiencing relational work together. I am not a therapist who sits and nods though I am keenly aware of the power dynamic at play in a therapeutic relationship. Therefore I focus on always helping you connect with your higher self, your intuition and your own understanding and empowerment.
I founded a group practice called Highland Park Holistic Psychotherapy in Los Angeles in an effort to support healers so they may do the important work of tending to the soul of the world. I’m passionate about training new therapists to step into their authenticity and stay aligned with their integrity in the ways they work with clients. I’m available for clinical consultation for therapists as well as business consultation for private and group practice owners.
As a child, into my late teens, I struggled with anxiety and an intense sensitivity to what was going on around me, with no understanding of what I was feeling. By my late 20’s, I was suicidally depressed. Later, I would learn this is a common trajectory for many Highly Sensitive People. I had trouble feeling safe enough to be myself with people and went along to get along (read: no boundaries). I experienced the world as a place I didn’t belong, and I always wondered, “What’s wrong with me?” a common question for HSP’s and folks with attachment trauma.
In college and grad school, I started to explore this isolating and frightening experience by way of art making. I loved taking big feelings and articulating them visually to better understand them. Many highly sensitive people find they are deeply moved by the arts and also clock nuances and details which can be useful in visual work.
I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree (and now work with many creative arts professionals and the issues they encounter) but I had an inkling the healing arts were calling me and I decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Depth Psychology and Counseling at Pacifica Graduate Institute, which allowed me to study the psyche by way of the imaginal, myth and symbol. This felt right in line with all the best parts of art making.
Depth psychological training in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches is the foundation of my clinical training. I’m also trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and utilize this powerful modality in a multitude of ways to heal trauma.
BFA University of Oregon, Fine Art
MFA University of Illinois at Chicago, Fine Art
MA Pacifica Graduate Institute, Counseling Psychology with emphasis in Depth Psychology
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in CA 94715
EMDR Trained Therapist
Founder/Clinical Director Highland Park Holistic Psychotherapy
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
EMDR International Association
