After a successful career in finance, I obtained a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania and transitioned to psychotherapy to better the people and community around me. From my time working in finance in New York, I maintain my passion for complex problem-solving and my ability to remain calm and collected in stressful situations when helping individuals, couples, and families. Therapy can be messy and painful. I am willing to be uncomfortable with people through this hard work, which can contain the anxiety some have around self-discovery and lead to more profound growth. Change, even positive change, isn’t a quick, linear process, and may involve grief. I help patients weather the storm while encouraging consideration of fresh viewpoints to move toward acceptance and transformation.
I have previously helped individuals through depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use, coming out to friends and family, and a variety of relational issues. By helping people through these diverse struggles, I understand how to sit alongside another person’s past and present suffering, pain, and shame, as well as their dreams, joys, and desires. Human beings are complex and full of necessary contradictions. I help individuals be curious about the many complicated and contradictory emotions that bring them into therapy, so they can find a more meaningful understanding of themselves and connect with a variety of people with more openness.
During my clinical training, I served as a crisis counselor and advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, and victims of sex and labor trafficking. This work gave me a reverence for the therapeutic relationship as a conduit for change and emphasized the absolute importance of establishing (and continually reestablishing) trust and safety with individuals. I am not a stoic therapist who asks removed questions. Instead, I bring myself into the work with humor, curiosity, and insight. While my style can be playful, I am deeply serious and passionate about creating an environment in which the vulnerability and intimacy that therapy requires can thrive.
Couples therapy and family therapy require me to encourage each partner or family member to form connections based on shared experiences while acknowledging different perspectives. I help couples and families do the difficult work of confronting relationship or generational sticking points, past wounds, and unmet needs that may have resulted in the raising of conscious or unconscious barriers. I support couples and families to challenge these ingrained dynamics that have prevented real conversation and forge stronger, more fulfilling connections.
Teens and young adults are in a raw, tumultuous period of their development. Beyond the task of forming their own identities and beliefs, they are also navigating an onslaught of external issues that can bring anxiety and hopelessness, such as generational divides on politics and social issues, the pervasiveness of social media and AI, and the looming climate crisis and economic uncertainty. I am a confidant to adolescents and emerging adults and a bridge to family and community, balancing young people’s desire and need for independence and recognition as their own person with their continued need to grow. I help teens explore their tastes and preferences, experimentation with personal expression, the quality of their relationships, self-image, and communication gaps with families, friends, and teachers.
Pronouns: she/her (read more about why I list my pronouns here)