Unconventional psychotherapy

I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona in 2006 with a dual degree in Creative Writing and French Language and Literature. In 2007, I moved to San Francisco to pursue a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Psychology at CIIS, which I completed in 2010. Throughout this period of time, I also trained and worked as a certified massage practitioner and certified Anusara-inspired yoga teacher. I was drawn to spaces of self-exploration and healing due to my personal and familial experiences with mental health issues. I decided to become a psychotherapist based on what I learned about what did and didn’t work for me as a client. I felt strongly, and continue to feel, that the field needs more representation: it needs clinicians who are not afraid to be human. It is of deep importance to me to be a psychotherapist who can connect with those who are wary of aspects of the therapy process that feel insincere, as well as with those who are inappropriately and unnecessarily pathologized by the field.

My early training as a psychotherapist took place in community-based settings, including several public schools, a family emergency shelter, and a long-term transitional living home for families. These experiences have given my approach a grounded, pragmatic feel; I like to provide interpretations, recommendations, and reflections that are tangible, accessible, and speak to clients in their own words. As one of my teachers used to say, “If an intervention can’t be done on the side of the road, it’s not worth doing.” I opened my psychotherapy private practice in 2011. In 2017, I entered a doctoral program in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at CIIS. My research focus involves re-imagining client cases through the lenses of different folk and fairy tales, and exploring the dialectic between creative process and psychotherapeutic work. I ran a full-time, in-person practice in San Francisco until December 2018, when I transitioned to an entirely remote practice. My practice continues to be based in San Francisco; I see clients exclusively online.