Professional Approach and Services

This approach theorizes that we have adopted thoughts and behaviors that serve some purpose but may also be limiting, inaccurate, or unhelpful. I employ CBT ideas and techniques as first-line interventions.

Relatedly, I have received training and taught an online group in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), a type of CBT therapy for high emotionality and borderline personality traits.

I believe that many difficulties we face are due to strong negative emotional events that have gone untreated. They may be "capital-T traumas" like assault or abuse. However, the research increasingly shows that "little-T traumas" like neglect, difficulties in childhood relationships, bullying, embarrassment, or other charged events can have long-lasting effects on us. I approach all clients with respectful and cautious awareness of that. 

Psychodynamic therapy examines how one's background, including its non-traumatic elements, are stored in the mind, often unconsciously, and are played out in present situations and relationships. Through the relationship between therapist and client, this approach aims to raise insight into and work through those patterns and beliefs in the here-and-now.