Are you feeling stuck, not "good enough" or lost?
Therapy can help you find the thread that connects your past with your present, paving way for greater self-understanding and a future more aligned with your desires, values, and goals.
Individual Psychotherapy
Adults
My practice is trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and LGBTQ+ affirming.
I work collaboratively with clients to find a unique and personal path through the difficulties they are seeking help with and in their efforts to live fully. This involves creating a space where you feel recognized, understood, and safe enough to explore the depths and complexity of your emotional experiences as well as the forces (internal and external to you) contributing to your suffering.
In our work together, we will come to know the strengths and resources you already possess and develop those that are yet to come forth. We may be curious about how your history and the socio-cultural systems you are embedded in impact the areas of life most concerning to you now. We may also uncover and identify fears, repeating relationship patterns, and/or limiting ideas about the self that no longer serve you and discover more expansive ways of being and relating to your self and others.
As a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, I am trained to listen with compassion and openness, facilitating our exploration of what might be happening beneath the surface. Psychotherapy can be a deeply personal and enlivening process, through which you may begin to heal, see yourself and your situation in a different light, and develop greater self-trust. My approach is warm, depth-oriented, playful and responsive to your specific needs.
People often come see me to discuss issues such as:
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Anxiety and depression
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Relationship difficulties
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Self-esteem and self-doubt
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Life transitions
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Identity and self-exploration
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Grief and loss
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Creative blocks
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Intergenerational trauma
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Cultural and systemic oppression
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A subspecialty of mine is working with multicultural, multiracial, mixed, and/or third culture individuals
Children
Individual psychotherapy gives children a private, safe, and affirming space to make sense of and process their unique experiences. This can be especially helpful and beneficial when those experiences have been difficult, confusing, painful, or overwhelming to your child. My approach to child psychotherapy is collaborative, exploratory, practical and relational.
Unlike adults, children primarily use play as their natural tool and medium to communicate. As a child psychotherapist, I engage your child through play to understand their inner experiences, struggles, worries, and perhaps unspoken needs and feelings, as well as to help them develop more adaptive patterns of communicating and relating to others.
This process is most effective when there is a joint effort between the child, caregiver(s), and therapist. Anxiety, depression, and other emotional difficulties present differently in children, which may make it challenging for the adults in their lives to understand their concerning behaviors, thoughts, or feelings. Generally, we will work together to understand the meaning behind any troubling behaviors and feelings as well as to identify the factors (both internal and external to your child) contributing to them. In addition to individual sessions with your child, I meet with caregivers regularly to provide consultation and offer guidance in responding to your child’s unique emotional, behavioral, relational and/or academic needs.
ABOUT
I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and hold a master's degree in counseling psychology from the Wright Institute and a BA in government from Georgetown University. I bring a systemic understanding of mental health to my work and am passionate about providing culturally responsive psychotherapy that integrates relational and depth-oriented modalities with a social justice lens. My experience includes working with children, transition age youth, and adults from diverse backgrounds in private practice, community mental health, and school-based settings. I am trained in and continue to train in psychodynamic / psychoanalytic therapy, which includes my own personal psychoanalysis. I have also completed a postgraduate fellowship at Access Institute for Psychological Services and the STAY Fellowship through the American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program.
Outside of my psychotherapy practice, I have a background in business development in the nonprofit sector and diversity, equity, and inclusion work for a tech startup. I have lived abroad in Taiwan, China, and Australia and am an avid saunterer, artist, and undaunted assembler of furniture twice my size and weight.
CONTACT
If you would like to schedule an appointment or have any questions about my services, please feel free to contact me by phone or using the form below.
(510) 974-3618
2340 Ward Street
Berkeley, CA 94705
Telehealth available