My Approach

I believe that we heal and grow most profoundly and meaningfully in connection with others. Most of us come to therapy having tried to manage things on our own. We often think that our own willpower and determination should be enough to get us through. When they don’t seem to be enough, we can sometimes judge ourselves harshly. I see reaching out for help and support as a strength, and I see the desire to grow in connection with others as that which makes us human.

For over twenty years, I’ve helped individuals and couples to relate to themselves and their partners differently, so that they can feel more secure, more satisfied, and more emotionally alive in their individual lives and in their relationships. I am experienced with a diverse population of individuals and couples and bring humility and awareness of my privileged location as a white, cisgendered female in my work with clients.

I have training in relational psychodynamic psychotherapy, feminist sociology, gender studies, and clinical social work. This combination of orientations helps me to focus on your internal experience and on the impact of social, cultural, economic, racial, and gender dynamics on your sense of self and on your relationships with others and the world.

For more than twenty years, I have been engaged in the practice of insight meditation and have seen firsthand the ways that meditation and psychotherapy are complementary practices. In meditation we come to notice what is happening here and now with compassion and curiosity, we accept the limitations inherent in being a person, and we experience a greater capacity for connection and joy as we find internal freedom to be present to what’s happening right now.

“Being the “best you can be” is really only possible when you are deeply connected to one another. Splendid isolation is for planets, not people.”

- Sue Johnson

Training and Credentials