Who I Am

My Philosophy

I believe that relationships make up our psychological world. Our relationship with others constructs our external world, and our relationship with the varied parts of ourselves defines our internal world. These two relationships, internal and external, are inextricably linked, and how we interact with others offers valuable insight into how we interact with ourselves, and vice versa. Shifts in one also inevitably create a shift in the other.

I also believe that healing is the product of our ability to fully feel our emotional experience in an embodied way.  When we can do this, healing occurs.  It can be difficult to stay with ourselves when we experience an intense emotional experience, and we have often learned ways to move away from the experience, and thus ourselves.  These learned patterns were wise solutions at the time they were created, but unless we bring deep consciousness into these patterns, they remain, even though they may no longer serve us.

My Education and Training

I am a licensed clinical psychologist in California and Texas with a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. I have experience working with a wide variety of clients, including professionals, couples, adolescents, and college students in settings ranging from private practice and university counseling centers to community mental health clinics and outpatient substance abuse facilities. I have been trained in relational, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and completed an intense 2-year training program through San Francisco's Access Institute focused on helping people live richer lives. I have also done additional training in various somatic-based therapies.
In addition to my private practice, I have been staff psychologist at the Mills College Counseling Center and an adjunct professor of Clinical Psychology at several Bay Area graduate schools and the Counseling Psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin.