Compassionate

Experienced

People seek therapy when they need things to change.  A trusting therapeutic relationship is one that creates a safe holding space in which people can explore and confront difficult issues. My approach is compassionate and personalized and represents a collaboration between you and me to address your needs in the way that is comfortable for you.   I will help you identify what you want to change, help you set goals, and construct an individualized plan for making those changes.  Psychological change might involve cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral changes.

My approach is based on evidence based psychotherapy practices.  I put a lot of effort into staying informed and educated about the latest research about psychotherapy effectiveness.  In addition, I put a lot of effort into my own perpetual self-improvement as a therapist. 

Evidence-Based

Effective

My passion is helping people with relational and interpersonal struggles – identifying and breaking unhelpful patterns of relating with people, improving interpersonal and communication skills, social anxiety, learning healthy relationship skills, addressing attachment issues, and more.  I also have expertise in treating depression and anxiety, anger issues, trauma, coping with life stressors and transitions, and substance use disorders.

My orientation and training began with solid grounding in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).  Over the course of my career, I have trained further in additional and related modalities.  I am trained in Motivational Interviewing and served in the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) from 2008-2010. I trained providers in the Harris County Hospital system and outpatient clinics in the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program. Around the same time, I began to gravitate towards “Third Wave” behavior therapies.  Traditional CBT helps many people, but there are also many people who don’t respond to CBT and may need a different approach. I have significant training with and experience using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and would describe this as the primary foundation of my approach to therapy now.    In 2012 I received extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) through Behavior Tech, and was one of the founding members of the DBT program implemented at the Houston VA. While at the VA I developed and ran a brief 6-week group intervention for anger management problems.  I completed a certification program for Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for post-traumatic stress disorder. In recent years I have trained in and gravitated towards Schema Therapy and Emotion Focused Therapy to help people change long-standing patterns of relating and more chronic forms of depression and anxiety.

Therapeutic techniques may include:

daily logs and tracking • experiential exercises • use of metaphor • mindfulness practice • exposure work (imaginal and in vivo) • behavioral activation   reflective listening • high level validation • skills training • psycho-education • journaling/expressive writing • motivational interviewing based questions • SMART goal setting • role playing • personalized outcome measurement

Collaborative

Personalized

I help people work through emotional stuck points of various kinds:

  • social anxiety

  • depressed mood

  • anxiety and panic

  • post-traumatic stress disorder

  • substance abuse

  • stress management

  • self-esteem

  • existential problems

  • self-improvement and self-development

  • anger management

  • interpersonal and relationship problems

In addition I have significant experience with addressing LGBTQA and other minority stress issues. I am trained through Gender U to conduct assessments and provide documentation for people seeking gender affirming medical care.