Specialties

Anxiety can be a rational human reaction to a threat or an unknown. It can also be an ingrained maladaptive response to irrational fears and worries. It is not a question of whether or not we have anxiety, but in how we react to anxious symptoms and how much it blocks us from wholehearted living. Learning how to challenge anxiety, manage life with anxiety, and better tolerate distress is empowering. It takes courage, and I’m here to walk you through that.

Addiction is often referred to as the opposite of connection. This is true because an addict or alcoholic experiences biological changes in the pleasure center of the brain that cause a drive for the substance beyond other internal or external desires. Lack of connection with self and others is progressive, and addiction is not a choice or a moral failing. It is an abnormality in the brain, and a manifestation of deeper core issues. I use my experience from years in inpatient treatment to help clients and families affected by substance use.

The term “OCD” is often overused, which is frustrating for those who are formally diagnosed with OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder is a debilitating psychological disorder that consists of obsessive thoughts, exhausting compulsions, or both. Obsessions and compulsions are extremely hard to resist, difficult to manage, and tedious to re-wire. However, I provide use of several evidence-based practices for OCD treatment. There are many types of OCD, and the most effective forms of treatment are psychoeducation, CBT, and exposure response prevention. I have also found success in using EMDR to help treat anxieties around resisting the urge to follow through with OCD behaviors.

I define trauma as any adverse experience that gets “stuck” with you. The word trauma is often stigmatized or even sometimes glorified. Trauma can be emotional, mental, or physical, and you are not “less than” for having any of it. Our nervous systems are designed to detect danger and protect us from perceived future dangers. Trauma happens when we have not resolved a life threatening experience or an experience where we witness something life threatening. If left misunderstood and untreated, trauma in any form can manifest as symptoms that create unmanageability in life. Using EMDR therapy and psycho-education, I help teach clients about the nervous system, maladaptive responses to unhealed trauma, and how to react more adaptively to things that activate trauma responses.