Hello! Thank you for visiting.
In my experience, people who are looking for a therapist fit into one of two groups. Which one sounds like you?
People who have identified their goals for therapy. You have already done a lot of looking up information and attempted to resolve issues on your own. And that’s great! There’s a lot of information and self-help advice out there: books, YouTube videos, TED talks, podcasts, TikTok, all forms of social media. Searching for solutions on your own shows initiative, curiosity, courage, and intelligence. Perhaps you’ve even diagnosed yourself with anxiety [“I worry about everything.”] or depression [“I can’t concentrate or motivate myself to get things done.”] or even PTSD [“Ever since _____ I have nightmares, intrusive memories. I can’t think clearly.”]
People who know something isn’t right, but don’t know what to do about it. If goals are not you, and you have started searching for a therapist because something isn’t right in your life and you don’t know what that is. That’s great too! Searching for a therapist when you don’t know what you don’t know shows awareness, initiative, curiosity, courage, and intelligence too. Even if you think you know your roadblocks, something else may surface in the therapy process. What may feel like rudderless exploration, sometimes leads to the most significant insights.
Either way, let’s talk. Finding a therapist that is a good fit for you is most important.
The difference between normal and needing mental health assistance
We live in a culture of overlapping and very imperfect—sometimes unhealthy—systems that each of us has to adapt to in order to survive. These systems, the environment in which we all live, the relationships we have, work, family, finances, other people’s expectations, OUR expectations, all contribute to our day to day quality of life. Each of us has some level of anxiety and depression, at times. We all have nightmares, intrusive memories, self-doubt and the big one, self-criticism at times. But, when these feelings, thoughts, and experiences happen on the daily or become unmanageable and self-help tools aren’t working, professional assistance can help.
My approach to therapy
My approach to therapy begins with what is going on in your life today.
- The Present. Tell me what is getting in the way of you being your best self and enjoying life.
- The Past. Let’s identify and examine patterns of behavior and beliefs that you learned in the past that are not working for you now.
- The Future. Imagine and plan a brighter, more hopeful future for yourself.
My goals are your goals
Therapy with me is:
- Client-centered: by, for, and about you.
- Interactive: a two-way conversation.
- Transparent: ask questions about what we’re doing; disagree with anything I say or do.
- Collaborative: we are a team, we work together…FOR YOU.
What’s good for you
Whether you have specific goals, an underlying feeling that something isn’t right, or a desire for more happiness, doing something about it takes courage. You may not know what you want, but chances are, you know what you don’t want.
ABOUT MY PRACTICE
I see clients one day a week [Tuesdays] in Culver City for in-person sessions. I offer video sessions Thursdays and Fridays on ZOOM, a secure, private, and HIPAA-compliant platform. I use another service, SimplePractice that has a client portal for appointment reminders, secure messages, sharing documents, and billing information. Simple to use, you don’t even have to set up an account.
MY PHILOSOPHY
There is a lot of talk about self-care. I’m sure you’ve heard or read about it. Most of the time, self-care advice comes in the form of shoulds, as in you should exercise, you should eat right, maintain a regular practice to manage overactive thinking [meditation, journaling], develop a spiritual practice or belief, get some social interaction. These are great suggestions. But those very suggestions can become stressful and a burdensome in themselves.
How about this thought: self-care is not another to-do list that other people think is right for you. Self-care is caring about yourself enough to decide what is best for you, 24/7, one minute, one hour, one day at a time.
Therapy is a foundational form of self-care. Therapy is carving time out of your week just for YOU. The therapy process is about YOU and developing your philosophy, self-care, inner wisdom and insight. Are you ready to begin [again]?