My approach is collaborative and interactive. At the beginning of treatment, we will create a clear, focused, and individually tailored understanding of how I can help. My emphasis on flexible thinking is based on my extensive training in a type of therapy called mentalization-based treatment, or MBT, an approach that specifically aims to strengthen our ability to respond reflectively when our emotions are heightened. During our sessions, we will make connections between your symptoms, emotions, thoughts, and interactions, including your experience in the present moment, with the purpose of helping you feel more secure and confident in your ability to make progress on your therapeutic goals between sessions.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
I understand people want therapy to be both personally meaningful and effective. I believe that each person who comes for therapy is motivated to find their own particular way of benefiting from the interaction. At the same time, I know the therapy process can sometimes feel confusing, and part of my role is to help provide clarity on how our conversations will contribute to your progress. My preferred mode of practice is to see clients weekly, or, for clients who want to explore their interpersonal patterns in depth, multiple times per week. I presently don't see clients at a frequency of less than weekly.
COuples THerapy
My favorite definition of mentalizing is seeing oneself from the outside and others from the inside. Relationships force us to take-in our partner's view of us, which we may have valid reasons to resist. I have over six years experience helping couples recognize, talk about, and appreciate their conflicting perspectives. Ideally, couples therapy will feel both emotionally challenging and enlivening. I find that as partners work hard to revise their understandings of each other, without immediate pressure to agree or disagree, their communication begins to relax and change.
LGBTQ AFFIRMING THERAPY
I spent six years working as a therapist at Mazzoni Center, an agency dedicated to serving the LGBTQ community in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to helping LGBTQ clients with the problems that bring most people to therapy - mood, anxiety, trauma, relationships - I also have experience with LGBTQ specific issues, such as internalized stigma and gender variance. Please check out my article, in Huffington Post Queer Voices, about how homophobia and transphobia are incompatible with ethical therapy.
SUPERVISION
Since 2013, I have provided clinical supervision to Master's level interns and early career professionals. I am a BACS in Louisiana, and am certified to supervise LMSW's toward licensure, in both individual and group formats. My approach is especially, but not exclusively, suited to those interested in a contemporary psychoanalytic orientation. Supervision will place special emphasis on clinical process, mentalizing interventions, the detailed inquiry, dissociation, enactment, and countertransference. Studying psychoanalytic thinking is an ongoing project for me. It keeps daily clinical work feeling fresh and helps prevent burnout. I'm especially drawn to contemporary interpersonalists, such as Edgar Levenson and Donnel Stern, but also value a comparative perspective across psychoanalytic schools.
