“I am highly eclectic and flexible, and I work to integrate kindness, compassion, and understanding into each session while also building a strong therapeutic relationship along the way.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
I have always had a strong empathetic base, feeling deeply for others and wanting so badly from an early age to help those I saw suffering. I started taking psychology classes in high school and my passion for mental health took off. I continued my path at the Honors College at Pace University, studying psychology, sociology, anthropology, and women and gender studies. I followed this by studying mental health counseling at Fordham University and interning at a low income clinic in Chelsea, providing group therapy and individual counseling. I worked closely with our team to provide integrated care that addressed the multifaceted needs of the clients. Post graduation, I continued my work with individual clients, running an anger management group and working on a grant project that provided preventative services to the population at high-risk for psychosis. This shaped my values as a therapist, encouraging me to make therapy accessible for all and break the stigma of mental health treatment.
What should someone know about working with you?
A typical intake with me consists of rapport-building and information-gathering; together, we will explore your history, symptoms, and what has brought you into therapy while developing treatment goals. We will review goals every 3-6 months to assess progress. At times, I may assign homework to encourage further learning outside of session, but this is dependent on you and your needs. I am highly eclectic and flexible, and I work to integrate kindness, compassion, and understanding into each session while also building a strong therapeutic relationship along the way. I want to continue to fight the stigma of therapy in our world today and empower all to take charge of their mental health. I look forward to being alongside you for your journey!
What are you most excited about within the evolving mental health landscape?
I was involved in a grant project called ProSPECT, working to implement comprehensive evidence-based clinical services for youth and young adults who are at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P). The CHR-P population is one that was previously very underserved, and it was exciting to be able to work on a new project with the goal to prevent or delay the transition to threshold psychosis while providing clients with better skills to improve overall functioning and develop insight and resilience. I enjoyed seeing such integration of services — including in-depth assessments, introductory CBT, and group and family-based CBT — highlighting the broad scope of mental health treatment and recognizing how modalities can work together to address the wide variety of needs of a client while looking at both the environmental and biological aspects of mental health. I am very passionate about further work within this population and destigmatizing psychotic symptoms to lessen the resistance to getting help.
“I want to continue to fight the stigma of therapy in our world today and empower all to take charge of their mental health.”