I am a therapist who is dedicated to social justice, which I believe is about more than acknowledging the pervasive influence of multiple intersecting identities on the emotional health of an individual, couple, or family. Instead, it takes a willingness to step into the reality of another’s unique experience. With a Master’s degree from NYU and an advanced certificate in LGBTQ mental health, I provide affirming and anti-racist therapy for all individuals, couples, and families with an appreciation for how each person is affected by culture, including normative cultural pressures, in their experiences and interpersonal relationships.
While emotional suffering is intensely personal, its impact can extend well beyond to other systems in a person’s life, including their relationships, families, and communities. I came to this understanding while working at a child advocacy center in Birmingham, Alabama. Offering children and teens and their families a safe place after abuse, I learned, while sitting with parents, that when one family member is hurting, all the other family members hurt in their own way. As a therapist, I acknowledge how these systems not only affect a patient’s emotional struggles, as well as the dynamics within a couple or family, but their understanding of both themselves and others.
I am acutely aware of how young individuals’ emotional needs are often not taken seriously, including depression, anxiety, body image, gender and sexual identity, substance use, dating, and sex. While pursuing my undergraduate degree, I assisted in research about the experience of dating and sexual violence in young adults and its connection to childhood experiences in the hopes of developing better prevention measures. This research, as well as previously working with teens in victim advocacy, continues to inform my therapy with teens and young adults. I work to build relationships with young patients in which their joys, grief, anger, and challenges are seen as not only very real but an essential part of shaping who they are.