Psychotherapy is a privileged conversation unlike any other — a conversation that is catalyzed by deep honesty, compassion, and curiosity. The safety and support of the relationship we build together will allow you to develop insight and engage your creativity in understanding questions you are confronting. The modalities I work with most readily — psychoanalysis, and mindfulness-based approaches — address the effects of your development and history on the concerns you are facing, while also alleviating and tending to the immediate impacts of your symptoms in the present. A little more information about these follows:

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis mean something very different than what it meant in the time of Freud. It is more interactive and engaged than the caricature of the silent analyst and the patient on a couch. I look to theories of the mind that consider our earliest relationships as building blocks of our experience of self, and of the world around us: Relational, Interpersonal, Humanistic and Existential theories of psychoanalysis. Not stale at all, this work connects the immediacy of your emotional experience with deeply held perceptions of your self, your relationships and the world, opening up avenues to profound change and growth.

Mindfulness-based approaches such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy address the immediate symptoms at hand, provide fresh perspectives and tools that catalyze the process of change. Keeping a focus on the mind-body connection allows for better regulation of emotion and overall wellbeing. Staying tuned in to the facts of present reality and cultivating acceptance actually facilitates change.

As a Couple therapist, my work is informed by attachment and psychoanalytically oriented approaches such as Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. There are so many ways to be a couple. I approach each without judgement or expectation. I see the primary aspects of health in couplehood as attachment, trust, communication and sexuality. I approach this work from a position of facilitating conversation between partners so that they can discover the avenues and obstacles to connection in their relationship. This work typically involves understanding how early relationships inform our patterns of relating to others. In the safety of the therapy space we explore how those patterns are enacted, and evaluate how the relationship can support each person’s needs.

My specialization in Eating Disorders stems from prior work experience as an individual, group, and family therapist at the Renfrew Center of New York from 2004-2008. Eating disorders may seem like they are simply a disorder of behavior, but are actually manifestations of trouble in many aspects of experience — embodiment, attachment, identity, sexuality, self-care. I take a holistic, relationally oriented approach to symptoms with intent to uncover the inner conflicts or trauma being expressed through the disordered relationship to food and body. Often with adolescents, family work is an important component of treatment. I also maintain a roster of trusted specialists in nutrition, psychiatry, and medicine for instances when a team approach is needed.