Background & Experience

I am a licensed professional counselor, psychoanalyst, and educator in private practice in Boulder, CO, where I offer individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for adolescents and adults. With my dual background in counseling psychology and higher education, I have over two decades of experience working with teens and adults in a range of settings and capacities—as a college instructor, psychotherapist, coach, and counselor.

I hold a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Colorado, Denver and a Psy.D in Psychoanalysis from the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, as well as an M.A. in English from Purdue University. Before opening my private practice in 2009, I studied and practiced counseling in a variety of settings, including a university counseling center, a residential treatment program, hospice care, and a community counseling center. I also have extensive training in several specialized modalities, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and the Hakomi Method.

 

Philosophy & Approach

In my experience, the difficulties that bring us to seek psychotherapy are best understood, not as symptoms of something “wrong” with us, but as expressions of our ongoing struggle to live our lives as fully as possible while negotiating some of life’s trickiest balancing acts—identity, relationship, sexuality, self-expression, spirituality, and career, just to name a few. And, social animals that we are, none of us can negotiate them alone. By offering a safe environment to work through the difficulties of the past, psychotherapy can help us cultivate the insight and resources we need to live more fully and freely in the present

In keeping with this view, I take a developmental, collaborative approach, one that integrates the relational work of psychodynamic therapy with the more active, skills-based approaches of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Drawing on my specialized training in cognitive, psychodynamic, and mindfulness-based therapies, my approach begins with meeting clients where they are and inviting them to set their own goals for therapy. Whether you can pinpoint the source of your struggle or have no idea what’s wrong, we’ll work together to discover what’s holding you back, where you want to be, and what’s needed to get you there.