“I am very open-minded and believe in helping you identify and follow your own path, not the one societal messaging tells you to follow.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
I have worked as a therapist for several years; I provide both individual and group therapy. I’ve always had a strong intellectual curiosity about human emotion and behavior. I believe that social norms and messaging can be very constraining and prevent people from developing into their ideal selves. Through experience, I have learned things I wish I had known when I was younger. I am particularly passionate about guiding people in their 20s and 30s, especially when it comes to self-esteem, career, and relationships. I think that issues such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem are societal issues as much as they are individual issues. I am very open-minded and believe in helping you identify and follow your own path, not the one societal messaging tells you to follow. I am passionate about helping people better understand themselves, accept themselves, and express their truths.
What should someone know about working with you?
Clients I work with often have a very hard time saying no and speaking up for themselves. They often have an inner critic telling them they are never doing enough. I use a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy in my practice, which targets the way you talk to yourself. My approach is step-by-step and methodical; it’s important to first thoroughly understand the problem and then work on addressing it. I ask a lot of prompting questions to get you to think about things and better understand yourself and what you want. Sessions with me are structured and include processing, goal setting, education, assignments between sessions, and feedback. Typical goals that clients who work with me might want to work toward are decreasing anxiety, decreasing social anxiety, expressing themselves more, becoming more assertive, better managing anxiety in response to work stress, and gaining clarity on their next steps professionally.
How do your core values shape your approach to therapy?
Systemic issues are something I care about and they inform my perspective on the work that I do. Values such as compassion, fairness, and respect are important to me. I’ve heard from several clients about the discomfort caused when there is conflict between capitalism and their value systems. We live in a world that unfortunately is often judgmental, unjust, and cruel. Many of the clients I work with bring up concerns about systemic issues, such as racism, antisemitism, classism, discrimination toward the LBGTQ community, sexism, and capitalism, and how these impact their lives. These can often create a sense of anxiety, guilt, and powerlessness in us. I think part of my work and mission as a therapist is to provide a safe space to have these types of discussions if you’d like.
“I am passionate about helping people better understand themselves, accept themselves, and express their truths.”