About

"A greater understanding of your Youness"

Only you can speak the true story of who you are. Your cultural identity is crucial to weaving your narrative and can bring deeper meaning and insight into who and where you are today. With compassion and sensitivity, I incoporate these aspects into our therapy wellness plan.

Our therapeutic partnership is built on mutual trust, understanding, respect, transparency, and collaboration. You have an equitable part in our therapeutic relationship, and this is to empower your decisions in how to make the most out of your therapy.

To get started, here are some honest truths about myself.

Me. Myself. I.

She. Her. Hers.

I was born in Ontario, Canada, raised by Carribean immigrant parents. We moved to the United States when I was 9. I come from a mixed-race, melting-pot background, and often tout that "I am likely one of the most mixed persons you know."

Being raised by immigrant parents meant both the hope of a greater economic and educational opportunities, but also the struggle of acculturation and lower socioeconomic status. Having experienced systematic and structural racism embedded in US society, I deeply resonate with the concept of inequity and privilege that impacts our society today.

I use these experiences as a reminder to commit to understand each of my clients' individually, using cultural identity to inform how they are witnessed in our therapy space, and in the world. Everyone, everywhere deserves a chance to be seen, heard, and treated with compassion.

Education.

I earned my bachelor of the arts (A.B.) from Duke University. Predictably, I majored in Psychology, minored in Sociology, and pursued a certificate in Human Development. Blue Devils!

My masters degree and doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology were completed at the University of South Florida. My research focused on theory and measurement of borderline personality disorder, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation.

My clinical work focused on treatment approaches for adults dually diagnosed with substance use and mental health problems, including those involved in the criminal justice system.

I completed my pre-doctoral internship at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD)/Veterans Administration San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS). My post doctoral fellowship was at the VA Palo Alto and I continued as a staff psychologist there and affiliated Stanford Medical clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry.

During my time in the VA I worked with veterans in all levels of care: general mental health outpatient, intensive outpatient, residential, and inpatient. These veterans suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), substance use, depression, anxiety, adjustment issues, family/relationships, and end-of- life issues, among others. I facilitated group and individual therapy rooted in frontline treatments for PTSD: Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure: both therapies focus on changing maladaptive beliefs and behaviors that are consequences of trauma, goals of re-engaging with their community, and building a life worth living. I also used an eclectic set of approaches including: Acceptance and Commmitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches to work with veterans holistically and provide treatments integrated and tailored to their complex presenting issues.

Work Experience.

I have previously worked at Lyra Health as a clinical manager and therapist and Atai Life Sciences as a clinical manager of content design. I have served in the capacity of staff psychologist for behavioral health, addictions, dual diagnosis, outpatient and residential care in the VA Healthcare System.