Therapeutic Approaches

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment approach that integrates principles of acceptance and change to help individuals better understand their emotions, navigate distress, and develop more effective ways of responding to life's challenges.

Grounded in behavioral science, mindfulness, and dialectical thinking, DBT recognizes that emotional and behavioral responses are shaped by both biological vulnerabilities and lived experiences. It emphasizes that we can validate our experiences while also working toward meaningful change.

DBT teaches four core sets of skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. These skills can be particularly helpful for individuals experiencing intense emotions, anxiety, relationship difficulties, impulsive behaviors, or challenges navigating stressful situations.

I integrate DBT principles, behavioral strategies, and skills into individual psychotherapy based on each client's needs, balancing acceptance, self-understanding, and meaningful behavioral change.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that explores the relationships between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and the ways we interpret and respond to our experiences.

CBT helps individuals recognize patterns that may contribute to emotional distress or interfere with their goals. Through collaborative exploration and practical strategies, clients can develop more flexible thinking, experiment with new behaviors, and strengthen their ability to navigate challenges.

Depending on individual needs, CBT may involve examining underlying beliefs, identifying unhelpful thinking patterns, developing coping strategies, and practicing behavioral changes.

CBT can be particularly helpful in addressing anxiety, depression, perfectionism, stress, and other emotional or behavioral concerns.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based behavioral approach that emphasizes psychological flexibility—the ability to remain present, make space for difficult internal experiences, and take meaningful action guided by personal values.

Rather than focusing exclusively on reducing or eliminating uncomfortable thoughts and emotions, ACT helps individuals develop a different relationship with those experiences.

Through mindfulness, acceptance, values clarification, and committed action, clients can learn to respond more flexibly to challenges while moving toward what matters to them.

ACT may be particularly helpful when navigating anxiety, perfectionism, life transitions, uncertainty, and patterns of avoidance or self-criticism.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, person-centered counseling approach that helps individuals explore and work through ambivalence about change.

Rather than directing or persuading someone toward a particular outcome, MI emphasizes curiosity, autonomy, and an individual's own motivations, values, and reasons for change.

Through thoughtful questions, reflective listening, and collaborative exploration, MI can help individuals better understand conflicting feelings, strengthen motivation, and identify meaningful next steps.

Motivational Interviewing may be particularly useful when navigating behavioral changes, health-related concerns, eating and coping patterns, or situations in which part of you wants change while another part feels uncertain or resistant.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured, evidence-based psychotherapy developed to help individuals process distressing memories and experiences, particularly those associated with trauma.

EMDR uses a phased treatment approach that includes assessment, preparation, and the processing of identified memories using bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or alternating tactile stimulation.

The goal is to reduce the distress associated with difficult experiences and support more adaptive ways of understanding and responding to them.

EMDR may be incorporated into treatment when clinically appropriate, based on a collaborative assessment of your needs, goals, readiness, and preferences.

Interpersonal and supportive psychotherapy emphasize the value of a collaborative therapeutic relationship and the opportunity to openly explore thoughts, emotions, relationships, and life experiences.

Often referred to as talk therapy, these approaches provide space to process challenges, develop greater self-understanding, consider new perspectives, and identify ways of responding to difficult situations.

Depending on individual needs, sessions may involve exploring interpersonal concerns, navigating transitions, processing emotions, strengthening coping strategies, or making sense of complex experiences.

Supportive psychotherapy recognizes that being heard, understood, and supported within a consistent therapeutic relationship can be an important part of psychological well-being and meaningful change.

Relational psychotherapy emphasizes the role relationships play in shaping our sense of self, emotional experiences, and ways of connecting with others.

This approach explores how early relationships, attachment experiences, and recurring interpersonal patterns may influence present-day relationships, expectations, and emotional responses.

Central to relational psychotherapy is the understanding that the therapeutic relationship itself can provide opportunities for insight, emotional growth, and new relational experiences.

Through collaborative exploration, clients can deepen their understanding of themselves, recognize patterns of connection and disconnection, and develop more intentional and fulfilling ways of relating to others.

Psychodynamic and insight-oriented approaches explore how past experiences, emotional conflicts, unconscious processes, and longstanding patterns may influence present-day thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships.

This work emphasizes curiosity and self-reflection, helping individuals recognize patterns that may have developed as ways of adapting to earlier experiences but no longer serve them in the same way.

By developing greater awareness of these patterns and their underlying emotional meanings, clients may gain new perspectives, strengthen their sense of agency, and create opportunities for meaningful change.

Person-Centered Therapy, developed by psychologist Carl Rogers, emphasizes empathy, authenticity, unconditional positive regard, and the individual's capacity for personal growth and self-understanding.

Rather than positioning the therapist as the sole expert on a client's experience, this approach recognizes the importance of collaboration, autonomy, and creating a therapeutic environment in which individuals feel heard, respected, and understood.

Person-centered principles inform my approach to building a strong therapeutic relationship while honoring each client's lived experiences, values, and capacity for change.

Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), developed by psychologist Paul Gilbert, integrates principles from evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, and other psychological approaches to help individuals develop a more compassionate relationship with themselves and others.

Compassion-focused interventions explore the ways shame, self-criticism, and perceived threats can influence emotional experiences and patterns of responding.

Through practices that cultivate self-compassion, emotional awareness, and a more supportive internal dialogue, individuals can learn to respond to distress with greater understanding rather than judgment.

I incorporate compassion-focused principles when working with concerns such as perfectionism, self-criticism, shame, body image, and difficulties navigating emotions or personal expectations.

Emotion-focused approaches recognize that emotions provide meaningful information about our experiences, needs, relationships, and responses to the world around us.

Rather than viewing difficult emotions solely as symptoms to manage or eliminate, these approaches emphasize developing emotional awareness, exploring underlying experiences, and understanding the functions and meanings of emotions.

Emotion-focused interventions may involve identifying and naming emotions, exploring emotional responses and unmet needs, processing difficult experiences, and developing more adaptive ways of relating to emotions.

I integrate emotion-focused principles to support emotional awareness, validation, processing, and a deeper understanding of the relationship between emotional experiences and behavior.

Developmental psychology explores how individuals grow, adapt, and change throughout the lifespan, including the biological, cognitive, emotional, social, and psychological processes that influence human development.

A developmental perspective considers how experiences and needs may differ across life stages, from adolescence and emerging adulthood to parenthood, midlife, and later adulthood.

It also recognizes that development is shaped by interactions between individual characteristics, relationships, environments, and cultural contexts.

I integrate developmental principles into my clinical work to better understand each person's experiences within the context of their life stage, developmental history, relationships, and ongoing transitions.

Family Systems Theory recognizes that individuals exist within interconnected relationships and that our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences are influenced by the systems in which we live.

Rather than viewing challenges solely as characteristics of one person, this perspective considers patterns of communication, relational roles, expectations, boundaries, and interactions within families and other important relationships.

A systems-oriented approach can help individuals, couples, and families better understand recurring patterns, navigate transitions, strengthen communication, and develop more effective ways of relating to one another.

I incorporate a family systems perspective when exploring how relational dynamics and broader environments influence individual well-being.

Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) emphasizes the importance of human connection, mutual empathy, and growth-fostering relationships in psychological development and well-being.

This perspective recognizes that our relational experiences are shaped not only by personal histories but also by social and cultural contexts, including power, privilege, marginalization, and experiences of connection or disconnection.

Relational-cultural principles encourage greater awareness of how relationships and broader systems influence identity, emotional experiences, and opportunities for growth.

I draw from this perspective when exploring interpersonal experiences, identity, relationships, and the ways social and cultural contexts shape an individual's sense of self and belonging.

Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is an interdisciplinary framework that draws from neuroscience, psychology, attachment theory, and developmental research to explore the relationships between the brain, mind, body, and interpersonal experiences.

This perspective considers how relationships, emotional experiences, stress, and environmental influences interact with psychological and neurobiological development across the lifespan.

It emphasizes the importance of understanding mental health within the context of interconnected biological, psychological, and relational processes.

Interpersonal neurobiology informs my holistic understanding of how lived experiences and relationships may influence emotional regulation, attachment, development, and well-being.

Trauma-informed care recognizes that experiences of trauma and adversity can influence our emotional, psychological, relational, and physical well-being.

Rather than focusing solely on symptoms or behaviors, a trauma-informed approach considers how past experiences, environmental factors, and individual responses may shape a person's sense of safety, trust, and connection.

This framework emphasizes safety, collaboration, transparency, choice, and empowerment throughout the therapeutic process.

I incorporate trauma-informed principles by attending to each client's experiences, preferences, strengths, and readiness while supporting a therapeutic environment grounded in respect, autonomy, and compassion.

Mindfulness involves intentionally bringing awareness to present-moment experiences—including thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and surroundings—with openness and curiosity rather than immediate judgment.

Mindfulness-based interventions can help individuals recognize automatic patterns of responding, develop greater awareness of their internal experiences, and respond more intentionally to difficult emotions and situations.

Mindfulness is incorporated into several therapeutic approaches, including DBT, ACT, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

I integrate mindfulness practices when clinically appropriate to support self-awareness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and a more compassionate relationship with one's experiences.

Harm reduction is a compassionate, pragmatic approach that prioritizes safety, autonomy, and reducing the potential negative consequences associated with behaviors or circumstances that may carry risk.

Rather than requiring immediate abstinence or complete behavioral change as a condition of care, harm reduction recognizes that change is often complex and nonlinear.

This approach emphasizes meeting individuals where they are, understanding the function of behaviors, and collaboratively identifying realistic steps toward greater safety and well-being.

Harm-reduction principles may inform work involving eating disorders, self-harm, substance use, and other coping behaviors, while remaining attentive to individual circumstances, clinical risk, and appropriate treatment needs.

I incorporate these principles when clinically appropriate, balancing respect for client autonomy with ongoing assessment, safety considerations, and evidence-based treatment planning.

A weight-inclusive approach recognizes that health and well-being are influenced by a complex range of biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors and cannot be determined by body size or weight alone.

Health at Every Size® (HAES®) is a framework that challenges weight stigma and weight-based assumptions while emphasizing access to respectful, compassionate, and individualized health care.

In my clinical work, I integrate weight-inclusive principles that honor body diversity, support autonomy, and consider the impact of diet culture, weight stigma, and sociocultural expectations on mental health and well-being.

This approach is particularly relevant to my work with eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns, where treatment emphasizes psychological well-being, individualized care, and a more compassionate relationship with food and body.