How I Work
Therapeutic Approaches at a Glance…
The approaches listed below aren’t rigid methods I follow step by step — they’re frameworks and philosophies that help me understand human experience. Some are more structured, others more intuitive. I’m also continually learning and deepening my work — and am interested in exploring Jungian and Gestalt ideas that speak to the depth and complexity of healing.
As you read through these, I invite you to hold them loosely. I don’t follow a single method, and may draw from other approaches like DBT or Motivational Interviewing when they feel helpful. I listen closely to what feels most supportive for you, and over time, we may weave in different tools or perspectives depending on what you’re needing. Like the healing process itself, this work is always evolving.
Person-Centered Therapy
Rooted in empathy and respect, this unstructured approach trusts that you already carry the wisdom you need to heal.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Exploring how past experiences and unconscious patterns shape the present — not to dwell there, but to bring clarity, understanding, and healing.
Relational Therapy
Safe, attuned connection — where the therapeutic relationship itself becomes a space for growth, repair, and trust.
Strength-Based Therapy
Focusing on the strengths you already carry — your insight, values, and resilience — especially in the moments when they’ve felt out of reach.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Learning to slow down and notice what’s here — your thoughts, emotions, and the quiet signals of your body. Mindfulness helps you meet yourself with gentleness and awareness.
EMDR
A structured approach for healing trauma by helping the brain reprocess distressing memories and return to a sense of balance.
Person-Centered Therapy
Person-centered therapy is rooted in the belief that you are the expert on your own experience — and that healing unfolds most naturally in a space of genuine empathy, trust, and respect. Rather than diagnosing or directing, this approach focuses on deep listening, allowing your own insight and self-understanding to emerge in its own time.
At the heart of person-centered therapy is the idea that people thrive when they feel seen, heard, and accepted as they are. That doesn’t mean we avoid what’s painful — it means we hold it with compassion. I won’t try to fix you, analyze you from a distance, or rush your process. Instead, I’ll offer a steady, caring presence as we stay close to what’s showing up — the questions, the ache, the hopes you may not have voiced out loud before.
This kind of therapeutic relationship creates a space where change doesn’t have to be forced — it can be allowed. Over time, you may find yourself becoming more in touch with your values, more confident in your choices, and more connected to your sense of self. Because when you’re given the safety to be fully yourself, something powerful begins to unfold: trust, clarity, and the freedom to grow.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy invites us to look beneath the surface — not to get lost in the past, but to understand how it continues to shape your present. Often, the ways we cope, relate, or see ourselves are rooted in early experiences and relationships. Some of these patterns are easy to recognize; others live quietly in the background, guiding our choices without our awareness.
In this work, we explore those deeper currents with curiosity and compassion. Together, we might notice repeated themes in your life — ways you protect yourself, what you reach for in times of distress, or the feelings that tend to get tucked away. As you make space for these parts, clarity begins to emerge. You may start to understand why certain things feel so charged or familiar, and how old emotional maps are still influencing you today.
Psychodynamic therapy doesn’t offer quick fixes — it offers depth. And in that depth, you may begin to experience a shift: from confusion to insight, from reactivity to agency, from shame to self-understanding. With time, this gentle untangling allows for new choices and more freedom to live in alignment with who you truly are.
Relational Therapy
Relational therapy is grounded in the understanding that we are shaped in relationship — by the families we come from, the communities we move through, and the experiences we’ve had with others along the way. When those early relationships are painful, inconsistent, or unsafe, they can leave lasting imprints that affect how we view ourselves and how we relate to others. You might find yourself caught in patterns of people-pleasing, avoidance, mistrust, or self-doubt — even when part of you longs for deeper connection.
In relational therapy, the relationship we build together becomes a key part of the healing. I don’t sit back with clinical distance. I show up with warmth, curiosity, and presence, and together we explore how your relational patterns play out — both outside of therapy and between us in real time. This offers a powerful opportunity to experience something different: to be met, heard, and responded to with care and attunement.
As we work, you may begin to feel safer expressing needs, setting boundaries, or allowing more of your real self to be seen. Relational therapy helps you build trust — not only with others, but with your own inner experience — laying the foundation for more authentic, connected living.
Strength-Based Therapy
Strength-based therapy begins with the belief that you are not defined by what’s happened to you — or by what feels hard right now. Instead, we focus on what’s already strong, even if it’s quiet: your resilience, your values, your capacity to keep going. This isn’t about forced positivity. It’s about remembering the parts of you that have endured, adapted, and carried you through.
In our work together, I’ll pay close attention to what lights you up, what you care about, and what you’ve already survived. We’ll explore the skills and qualities that may have been overlooked or minimized — like your ability to notice patterns, your loyalty, your sensitivity, or your creativity. These strengths are not always flashy, but they are real.
By reconnecting with what’s already within you, therapy can become a space not only for healing, but for growth. Over time, you may begin to feel more rooted in your self-worth and more capable of making choices that align with your truth. Strength-based therapy reminds us that healing isn’t only about tending to wounds — it’s also about building on the good that’s already there.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Mindfulness-based therapy invites you to slow down and bring compassionate awareness to what’s happening in the here and now — in your body, your mind, and your emotions. It’s not about achieving a state of constant calm or perfect focus. Rather, it’s about learning how to be with yourself more kindly, especially in the moments that feel hard.
In therapy, we may use mindfulness to help you track what’s happening beneath the surface: anxious spirals, emotional overwhelm, or the familiar pull of self-judgment. You’ll begin to notice not just the content of your thoughts, but your relationship to them — and how to create more space between feeling and reaction. This allows you to respond with more clarity and choice, rather than defaulting to old patterns.
Mindfulness can also help regulate the nervous system, build emotional resilience, and deepen self-trust. Over time, you may come to meet your experience with less fear and more gentleness — not because life has become easier, but because you’ve developed a steadier way of being with it. The practice is subtle, but powerful: creating small openings where healing can take root.
EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a structured, evidence-based approach to healing trauma, distressing life experiences, and the stuck emotional patterns that often follow. It works by helping the brain reprocess overwhelming memories in a way that brings them out of “survival mode” and into a more integrated, settled place.
Trauma can get stored in the nervous system in a way that makes it feel present, even when it’s long past. You might know you’re safe now — and still feel flooded, triggered, or shut down. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (often through eye movements or gentle tapping) to support your system in processing what it couldn’t fully handle at the time.
In sessions, we don’t relive the trauma — we gently touch into it, at your pace, while staying connected to a sense of safety and support. EMDR can bring relief where talk therapy alone may have reached its limit. It’s especially effective for symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and complex trauma, but can also support shifts in long-held beliefs like “I’m not safe” or “It was my fault.”
When processed, painful memories can lose their emotional grip — becoming something you remember, rather than something you still live inside.
