Expertise

I have a passion for bringing attention to the importance of satisfying relationships, authentic living, self-acceptance, creativity, and joy.

Couples, Families, & Your Relationships

intimacy / communication / context / sex / validation / empathy / understanding / value / meaning / connection


I have over a decade of expertise in conceptualizing and treating struggling interpersonal and intimate relationships. Through a honed lens of social constructionism, I focus on understanding and meeting the unique needs, meanings, and values of each relationship. Every relationship is unlike any other. This stance promotes authentic curiosity and explores how we make meaning together. Meaning and action are closely interwoven in our relationships, and each member of the relational context influences the culture and landscape of the interpersonal experiences within. In therapy, we collaborate in creating a new way of relating that allows the rediscovery of empathy for each other in these contexts, and resolves troubling patterns of communication and differences in expectations that negatively impact understanding, connection, and value...

I believe relationships and context matter. Research shows that relationship distress causes problems in mental health, work, children, and even your own physical health. Yet, healthy relationships protect you from stress and help you thrive.

I believe in using relationship therapy that works. I practice evidence-based therapy, which means I use therapeutic practices that have been studied and supported by empirical research studies.

I work with clients to improve their interpersonal functioning both within relational contexts (i.e., couples, families), as well as with individuals who would like to focus on their past, present, and future interpersonal interactions. Clients explore the relational impacts of experiences such as rejection sensitivity, feelings of codependency, attachment concerns, life transitions, divorce, trust, shame, self-esteem, assertiveness, and the impact of dating in the digital-age (i.e., feeling ignored, insecure, ghosting, text communications). 

I most often employ a mixture of Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy, Emotion Focused Couples Therapy and the Gottman Methods when working with intimate partners. I have an extensive background in Family Systems modalities as well, including Structural Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Family Systems, and others.

I strive to understand your goals, help you communicate and form these goals explicitly, and reach them effectively.  I have worked with couples, families, parents, Veterans, adolescents, and individuals on strengthening their relationships and interpersonal skills. I have expertise in working with LGBTQIA+ relationships, sex therapy, and increasing physical and emotional intimacy between partners who seek nonjudgmental therapeutic space and openness to non-traditional relationships (i.e., polyamory, open relationships, play partners, swingers, friends with benefits (FWBs), BDSM etc.). I work with couples/relationships and individuals addressing pornography consumption, kink, and all manner of consensual play.  (See additional relational competencies in diversity and relationship based services.) 

 

Unfortunately, most people don't have access to effective help for their relationships nor have they been taught what healthy relationships and communication look like. Because of this, I also prioritize increasing access to couple therapy by offering telehealth, evening and weekend scheduling, and lower-cost options that are tailored to Client needs and resources.  

 

There are several forms of relational therapy you can engage in: