I will reach out to you within 24 hours to arrange a free initial phone consultation of up to 30 minutes.
How can I help you?
I work with relationship issues, grief/loss, anxiety, trauma, self-esteem and depression.
I specialize in helping adults during major life transitions. These are times when significant internal or external changes create disorientation and distress, when ‘status quo’ is no longer an option. Examples including relationship changes, loss of a loved one, major health changes, and loss of employment. These periods are often accompanied by existential questions and the need to forge a new identity.
“it is not we who… ask about the meaning of life — it is life that asks the questions, directs questions at us… We are the ones who must answer” — Viktor Frankl
For all of us humans, life can be frustrating, lonely, disappointing and confusing. Sometimes feelings of distress reach an urgent pitch and we find ourselves feeling deeply dissatisfied or stuck. This may lead to questions like:
Who am I, really? Is this what life is supposed to be like? Am I doing something wrong?
There are no magic answers to these questions. There is, however, an opportunity to pause, turn towards the questions, and see what they illuminate.
Symptoms like anxiety, depression, and relationship conflict are informing you that some part of your life needs attention. All parts of change can be difficult . It is often impractical or needlessly difficult to start this process on your own. A trained therapist can help create safety for you to take stock, identify blind spots, and start creating meaningful changes in your life.
If you are curious, please arrange for a free thirty-minute consultation to learn more about how I can help you and assess whether we seem like a good fit.
About me
I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (# 127413). I received a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Sonoma State University. Previously, I earned MA and PhD degrees in Philosophy from Harvard University and taught Philosophy at the college level.
My background as a philosophy professor strongly influences my perspective as a therapist. My interest in existential questions and therapeutic methods led me to work with grief and loss in North Bay Hospice agencies for over two years. I have also worked extensively with young adults in university settings.
Curiosity, openness and humor are some of the most important tools I bring to this work. I have a cerebral temperament and particularly love to help bring understanding to experiences and behavior patterns that are a source of confusion, frustration and shame. I also love to use metaphor, analogies and humor to shift perspective and connect with different ways of seeing phenomena.
Logistics
My standard fee is $160 for a 50 minute session. Typically, couple or family sessions are 90 minutes in length ($250). Fees are due at time of service.
I have a 24 hour cancellation policy. This means that, barring exceptional circumstances, you will be charged for a session if you fail to cancel it at least 24 hours in advance.
I am not an in-network provider for any insurance companies. Some insurers will reimburse or partially reimburse you for services provided by out of network providers. I can provide you with a monthly superbill to submit to your insurance company.
I keep a few sliding scale spots available for people who are genuinely unable to afford the full fee. If we cannot find a mutually acceptable fee, I am happy to provide you with some resources for lower fee psychotherapy services.
Therapy usually starts with appointments on a weekly basis in order to build the relationship and establish a consistent framework for addressing problems. Depending on your needs and preferences, it may be helpful to meet more or less frequently.
I primarily work with clients in Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties. At this time of global health concern due to COVID-19, I offer appointments exclusively via telehealth. I am open to working via telehealth with clients who live anywhere in California.
I offer a free 30 minute phone consultation to prospective clients see if we might be a good fit.
Barring unusual circumstances, I respond to all inquiries made Monday-Thursday within 24 hours. I may be unavailable on the weekends.
Notice to clients and prospective clients:
Under the law, health care providers need to give clients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services.
You can ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service, or at any time during treatment.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.
For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, or how to dispute a bill, see your Estimate, or visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.
How I work
Throughout our lives, we all developed strategies to get our basic needs met by adapting to environments and circumstances. The forces of habit and momentum are powerful, and even though those environments no longer exist, our adaptations to them continue on. These patterns function as impenetrable yet invisible barriers between us and new, more useful ways of relating to people and our environment.
My goal is to help create a compassionate, fertile space for you to witness and accept yourself as you are now, including how you came to be here. Once the patterns and their reasons for existing are acknowledged, you can gradual consider which ones might no longer serve you, so that you can more closely align your choices with your own values, goals and dreams.
Exploring our patterns in a spirit of curiosity and compassion often creates a shift of perspective, allowing new choices and possibilities to come into view. As Carl Rogers said: “the curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change.”
Creating change, of course, can itself be a slow and difficult process, requiring experimentation, direction, and tenacity. I use multiple therapeutic modalities to both create conditions in which change is possible and help further it. Methods including cognitive, affective and behavioral strategies, inter and intra-session self-tracking, and mindfulness and somatic exercises. You are always invited to provide feedback on what is most comfortable and useful for you.
How is therapy different from talking to a friend?
For most of us, friendships are a beautiful and necessary part of a fulfilling life.
Unlike a friend or family member, a therapist exists outside the immediate ecosystem of your life and has no personal stake in your choices. He or she is not significantly impacted by the practical decisions you make. Also, therapists are trained both to recognize and to help you change cognitive, emotional and behavioral patterns that lead to distress and dysfunction.
Therapy, like a friendship or any other human relationship, is a function of the specific individuals who participate in it. It is essential that you feel at ease, comfortable and free to share what’s on your mind. If you don’t feel this way about me (or any therapist), you should find a different one
It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found - D.W. Winnicott
Couples Therapy
Our intimate relationships with others are often the sources of our greatest joy in life as well as our most profound distress. At their best, relationships can help us feel secure, accepted, and cherished, like we have a safe harbor from which to venture out and face life’s many challenges. At their worst, relationships can be accelerants for our greatest insecurities, leaving us feeling abandoned, overwhelmed, inadequate, and painfully alone.
Surprisingly, most of the positive and negative feelings flow from exactly the same source: our desire to feel deeply connected to a person we love. This is good news for relationships in distress. Distress is not a death knell, but rather a call to action. Most couples hear the call, but struggle with the execution. That is where working with a trained couple’s counselor can be helpful.
I use well-researched methods for improving relationships drawn from EFT (Emotion Focused Therapy) and CCT (Collaborative Couples Therapy) to help you build a stronger relationship. I will help you identify which aspects of your relationship are most satisfying and most distressing. Even the worst relationships have parts that are working well, and even the best have unsatisfactory aspects. We will build on what works in your relationship so that you can learn to shift your energy into the strategies that get you the connection you seek and away from unhelpful strategies that create conflict and frustration.
A great relationship takes work, but the rewards for this labor far exceed the effort.
I encourage you to contact me for a free initial consultation (up to 30 minutes). I work with intimate relationships between people of all sexual and gender identities.
