I’m a psychotherapist who takes an multidisciplinary approach to therapy. Before I began my therapeutic training, I studied neuroscience, behavior, and the convergence of the two. I received a Master’s degree from New York University, after my undergraduate study of psychology and neuroscience at Emory University. Supplemental to my academic and clinical work, I also studied at the Marcus Autism Center, and was a fellow at the Mind and Life Institute, where I was exposed to the most cutting-edge brain research in the field.
I take a science-based approach to better understand behavior, balanced with an appreciation of the cultural and psychological factors that make people infinitely more complex. I bring this knowledge, in addition to my consumption of contemporary news, politics, and culture, into the room with me in an effort to make the therapeutic work more aligned with and reflective of the world around us. My patients don’t live in vacuums; they breathe air that’s filled with societal expectations, legacies of oppression, and are told to walk through life in a very specific way. I encourage them to look at these lessons, and then choose what lessons they want to endorse and what is bogus.
I have worked with refugees and asylum seekers at Bellevue Hospital’s Program for the Survivors of Torture, and have worked significantly with women and trauma related to sexual violence, childhood sexual abuse, and domestic abuse. I study sexual trauma through the lenses of psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, and bring in a language and understanding of trauma and recovery. I help my patients untangle the blame, shame, guilt, and fear that tend to live in traumatic or difficult relational memories by reestablishing a deeply felt sense of safety in the world while simultaneously increasing the patient’s sense of power, autonomy, and control. Grappling with physical sensations related to shame, discomfort, or terror makes them easier to tolerate outside the therapy room.
In addition, I have helped mothers through pregnancy, childcare, birth, and raising kids from newborns to toddlers, as well as supported them through miscarriages, difficult pregnancies, and difficult births. I create space for mothers to sift through the difficult feelings associated with both having and losing children in order to process grief, facilitate healing, and restore or reorient to a “new normal” or changed family dynamic. While they are managing and navigating the often complicated world of medical procedures, doctors visits, and post-natal care, I believe it’s essential to help mothers and caretakers not lose sight of themselves or their own needs.
Most of my patients come to therapy knowing what parts of themselves feel tougher to tolerate than others, what parts they ignore or push away, and what parts they highlight at dinner parties, work meetings, and on dates. Likewise, in a couple or a family unit, there can be aspects of the relationship that are thriving, and, at the same time, aspects that are perhaps less evolved, less intentional, and more reactive. I encourage patients to assess the value of the different parts of themselves: which parts are moving them forward, and which are holding them back or keeping them in cycles that are reminiscent of a younger, less evolved, less capable individual.