What I believe
I believe in the resilience of human beings, and in each person's capacity for self-knowledge and responsible self-direction within sincere and supportive connection. I strive to offer that connection through empathy, attentiveness, genuineness, and acceptance, because the healing, transformational power of the alliance between client and therapist is the cornerstone of everything else.
Therapy with me is a collaborative process. Together we deepen your self-awareness and self-acceptance so you can live more fully and consciously, even in the face of life's inherent challenges, paradoxes, and uncertainties.
What we actually do
In practice, the work is conversational, but with a different quality of attention than everyday talk. We follow what matters rather than a script or a workbook. We notice where the old coping shows up, and trace it back far enough to make sense of what it was originally for. And because the relationship between us is a real one, the patterns that shape your other relationships tend to show up here too. That's not a problem—it's the point: a rare chance to see them up close, in motion, with someone whose only agenda is understanding them with you.
Over time, the work adds up to something larger: a way of being true to your innermost possibilities within the particular and universal constraints of the human condition, and a life that's more deliberate, more engaged, and more meaningful, whatever that looks like for you.
If you've already done good symptom-focused work and gotten somewhere but not far enough, that's often a sign the symptom was never the whole story. Depth work picks up where symptom management plateaus: we're interested not just in quieting what hurts, but in what it's connected to.
What brings people to me
Things we might work on: anxiety that remains once the source has faded; interpersonal and existential loneliness; questions of meaning, purpose, and identity; family-of-origin patterns, including the impacts of growing up with an emotionally unavailable, unpredictable, or self-absorbed parent; the costs of being the responsible one; relationships and repeating patterns; infertility, miscarriage, and the grief that doesn't have a script.
The frame
My practice is rooted in existential-phenomenological and psychodynamic inquiry, which is a formal way of saying we look closely, together, at your experience as you actually live it, and at the older patterns underneath it. Within that frame I draw on relational, feminist, and humanistic perspectives, tailored to you rather than to a predetermined sequence of interventions. I embrace the complexity and ambiguity of human existence. And though I consider my clients and myself to be in it together, alongside the rest of humanity, I deeply respect the singularity of each person's experience, and I'm honored to join people on their individual, uniquely courageous journeys.
Practicalities
Sessions are 55 minutes, typically weekly, by secure video.
I see adults located anywhere in Washington State.
The first step is to schedule a free 15-minute consultation call.