Philosophy
Your mind makes sense.
Psychotherapy begins with becoming curious about who you are and how you came to be.
We all inherit a map
Long before we consciously decide who we want to be, we begin developing beliefs about ourselves, other people, and how the world works.
What love looks like. What success requires. Who is safe. What is possible. What is expected of us. Who we need to become.
Some of these beliefs are taught explicitly. Others form quietly through relationships, culture, family, joy, loss, trauma, pain, adversity, and the thousands of experiences that teach us what to expect from the world.
Over time, they become part of our map.
And because much of that map operates outside of our awareness, we can find ourselves following familiar routes without ever consciously deciding where we're going.
Psychotherapy gives us somewhere to look at the map.
Not necessarily to throw it away. Much of it exists for a reason. Some patterns protected us. Some helped us belong. Some made achievement possible. Some helped us survive things we shouldn't have had to survive.
We can become curious about what is there, how it came to be, and whether it still fits the life you want now.
Over time, they become part of our map.
I'm less interested in what's wrong with your mind than I am in understanding how your mind works.
What we believe shapes what feels possible.
Our behavior rarely exists in isolation. Beneath it are thoughts, beliefs, values, experiences, and assumptions about who we are and how the world works.
Sometimes changing what we do begins with becoming curious about what we have learned to believe.
And what else we might be able to believe instead.
Diagnosis
Okay, you have _____ disorder.
Now what?
A diagnosis can give language to an experience, guide treatment, and help us understand what's happening. Medication can reduce symptoms and make parts of life more manageable.
And then there is still a life to live.
Relationships. Work. Love. Parenting. Friendship. Ambition. Rest. Grief. Pleasure. Hope.
Psychotherapy gives us somewhere to explore what all of that means for your particular life.
Integrated Modalities
Psychodynamic, Psychoanalytic Therapy
EMDR
eye movement desensitization & reprocessing
ACT
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Mind Body
Awareness
You are allowed to know something about yourself.
I bring clinical training, theory, experience, observation, and another mind into the room.
You bring knowledge I cannot have: what it is like to live your life.
Sometimes I'll notice something you haven't noticed. Sometimes you'll tell me I've gotten something wrong. Sometimes neither of us will know.
We stay curious.
Therapy happens where our ways of knowing meet.