My Approach.
Therapeutic Modalities
There are many different ways to approach healing, and therapy works best when it’s shaped around you: your goals, your pace, and your unique story. I draw from a few core approaches that complement each other. You might find that some sessions may feel very practical, others more reflective, and sometimes we’ll bring in the body as another source of wisdom.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a structured, skills-based approach that helps people navigate strong emotions and challenging situations. What I appreciate most about DBT is its balance. DBT teaches us how to accept and make space for our emotions, while also building new ways of coping and responding.
In DBT, we often focus on four main skill areas:
• Mindfulness: learning how to anchor yourself in the present, even when your mind wants to run ahead or dwell on the past.
• Emotion Regulation: understanding your emotions more clearly, and finding tools to manage them so they don’t feel so overwhelming.
• Distress Tolerance: building ways to get through painful moments without making things harder for yourself.
• Interpersonal Effectiveness: practicing communication skills, setting boundaries, and asking for what you need while honoring others.
These skills can be used in so many areas of life, whether you’re navigating family dynamics, managing stress at work, or calming yourself in a tough moment. Many folks find that DBT gives them something concrete to hold onto, strategies they can practice between sessions that help them feel more capable and steady in daily life.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic work takes us deeper. It’s about understanding the threads that connect your past to your present: your family histories, cultural influences, early relationships, and the subtle patterns that shape how you see yourself and others today.
This doesn’t mean staying stuck in the past. Instead, it’s about noticing how those earlier experiences live within you now, in the way you respond to conflict, in the roles you take on in relationships, or in the stories you tell yourself about who you are. By gently exploring these layers, you can begin to recognize patterns that may no longer serve you and create space for new ways of being.
I think of psychodynamic therapy as an invitation to curiosity. It’s less about arriving at quick solutions and more about developing a deeper, more compassionate understanding of yourself. Over time, this kind of insight often brings clarity, freedom, and a sense of living more intentionally rather than out of old habits.
Holistic & Body-Based Techniques
Sometimes, healing requires a bit more than talking. Our bodies hold memory and emotion in ways we may not even realize, and incorporating the body can open up new pathways to healing. For many people, body-based practices provide grounding and relief, especially when words feel hard to find.
Some of the techniques I may bring into our work include:
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques, or “tapping”): a gentle process of tapping on acupressure points while focusing on a thought or emotion, which can reduce stress and create a greater sense of balance.
• Deep Breathing & Breathwork: simple but powerful ways of calming the nervous system, slowing racing thoughts, and helping you return to the present.
• Grounding Practices: techniques that help you reconnect with your senses and body when you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or “out of your head.”
• Guided Imagery: using visualization to access a calm state, practice self-compassion, or imagine new possibilities.
• Gentle Movement or Stretching: small, mindful movements to release tension and reconnect with your physical self.
These practices are always optional and collaborative. These tools can be used outside of therapy, offering a way to settle the mind and body in stressful moments, and can also offer a deeper sense of integration, connecting thought, emotion, and body in a more holistic way.