I am a Hunter College-trained therapist who has helped patients through challenges such as loneliness, life changes like retirement, anxiety, depression, and discrimination in housing, work environments, and within families. I not only look at the struggles each individual, couple, or family faces and how their histories contribute to their lives today but also how sociocultural factors influence a patient’s relationships and experience of the world. We don’t live in bubbles—our cultural environment can play into our suffering. I don’t believe healing means simply trying to move past or rise above social ills that impact us, which often leads to avoiding discussing tougher topics. Instead, it is vital to acknowledge how sociocultural factors like race, gender, sexual identity, and class affect an individual, couple, or family.
I find helping couples transform and commit to growing together to be an inspiring process. I have worked with monogamous, non-monogamous, and polyamorous couples and consider the relationship itself as the patient rather than each individual. Couples can have so much desire to work through conflict, but at times, a partner’s desire to feel seen and heard can prevent them from seeing and hearing their partner. I get couples on the same page by establishing together what they hope to get out of both couples therapy and their relationship as a whole.
I have also worked extensively with LGBTQ populations, both as a therapist and a volunteer with the New York City Anti-Violence Project. With the Anti-Violence Project, I spoke with anonymous callers in crisis situations, from leaving an abusive partner, discussing sexual assault, coming out to family and friends, and experiencing homelessness. In this difficult work, it was more important to learn what an individual was experiencing than trying to impart advice or tell them what to do. These experiences led me to become a better therapist dedicated to remaining curious about the ways in which stigma and societal expectations can increase stress, as well as complicate an internal desire for change.
I am a sex-positive therapist and understand how being open to talking about sexual experiences in therapy can be powerful for individuals and couples by unlocking aspects of themselves they have yet to explore. Not only does this process of exploration deepen the trust between a therapist and patient (or patients), but it can also help negate the stigma that may surround these experiences and desires. I believe it is essential to create a space in therapy in which these conversations—and all challenging conversations—can happen without judgment or shame.