My role as a therapist
I became a therapist through crisis work, not in spite of it.
Before I had a private practice, I spent nearly a decade doing crisis intervention, the kind of work that drops you into the worst moments of someone's life and asks you to hold steady. What I learned there shaped everything about how I practice now: that the people who show up most reliably for everyone else are often the ones with the least space to fall apart. That hypervigilance isn't a character flaw, it's a nervous system doing exactly what it was trained to do. That healing rarely looks like the version described in a brochure.
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (CA LMFT #161321) with specialized training in trauma, depth psychology, and somatic approaches. I work with first responders, veterans, healthcare providers, therapists, activists, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, people who are competent, committed, and often quietly exhausted in ways they can't quite explain to the people around them.
What I actually do in sessions
My training includes Brainspotting, Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), somatic and body-based approaches, parts work, and narrative therapy, all grounded in attachment theory, polyvagal science, and harm reduction philosophy. I earned my degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology, which is a way of saying I care about what works clinically, and what something actually means to the person in front of me.
In practice, that means I'm not precious about method. I'm focused on what's useful for you, right now, given what you've actually lived.
I work at the intersection of evidence-based trauma treatment and depth psychology because I think the either/or approach misses something important - the both/and. Symptom relief matters, of course. But so does understanding why you built the coping strategies you did, and what it might look like to carry less of that weight going forward. Your nervous system isn't broken. It's been working overtime, for a long time, and there's a difference.
Who I work well with
If you've spent years being the capable one, the person other people call in a crisis, the one who manages their own distress quietly so they can keep functioning, you probably already know that asking for help doesn't come naturally. Maybe you've tried therapy before and felt like you had to translate yourself into a language the therapist could understand. Maybe you're skeptical that anything would actually help. Maybe you're just tired in a way that's hard to explain, and the trauma and/or burnout feels to be bone deep - a part of your identity at this point.
Those are exactly the clients I work best with.
You don't have to come in with everything figured out or packaged neatly. You don't have to perform insight or show up already knowing what's wrong. First sessions are straightforward: tell me what's going on, in your own words, and we'll figure out together whether I'm the right fit and what working together might look like. No ice-cold intake interview formality. No checklist. Just a conversation with a lots of curious inquiries from me to you. Most folks feel like its a gift in itself - for someone to be just so damn interested.
I'm trans-affirming, kink-aware, and poly-friendly. I take harm reduction seriously, which means I'm not interested in shame or judgment. I'm interested in what actually serves you.
My practice is in Nevada County, California. I offer both in-person and telehealth sessions, and I accept some insurances. For those with a PPO and out of network (OON) benefits, I work with Thrizer to help you get your insurance to reimburse you quick and easy - its an incredibly accessible way
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
~Audre Lorde
Some of the modalities I prefer to use include:
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Attachment theory serves as the foundational lens through which I understand and approach all clinical work. I view the therapeutic relationship itself as a corrective attachment experience, particularly for clients whose occupational roles, trauma histories, or cultural contexts have conditioned them to suppress vulnerability and distrust support. For those shaped by high-stakes relational environments, attachment patterns often show up in specific, recognizable ways, and naming them within a safe therapeutic relationship can be profoundly orienting.
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I've been a certified Brainspotting practitioner since 2022 and use it as a primary trauma processing modality, particularly with clients for whom traditional talk therapy hits a ceiling. Brainspotting works directly with the subcortical brain where trauma is stored, making it especially effective for first responders, veterans, and healthcare providers carrying occupational trauma and moral injury that's hard to reach through words alone. It's also a strong fit for clients who are analytically oriented but find themselves stuck despite good insight.
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I completed formal Jungian training through Pacifica Graduate Institute, and depth psychology is woven throughout how I understand and work with clients. Rather than treating symptoms as problems to eliminate, I approach them as meaningful communications from the psyche worth exploring. This is particularly resonant for first responders and veterans navigating moral injury, identity disruption, and the shadow material that accumulates in high-stakes service work. Depending on the client, this can involve dream work, active imagination, or simply holding space for the parts of a person's experience that don't fit neatly into their professional identity.
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I draw on Trauma-Focused CBT as an integrated framework rather than a rigid protocol, weaving cognitive and behavioral techniques into broader trauma treatment as clinically appropriate. This allows me to offer structured, evidence-based interventions for clients who benefit from psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and skill-building while still honoring the relational and somatic dimensions of trauma recovery. It translates particularly well for first responders and veterans who tend to appreciate a direct, skills-oriented approach alongside deeper processing work.
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For clients who have tried conventional approaches without sufficient relief, KAP offers a different entry point. Ketamine can soften psychological defenses and create space for deeper therapeutic work. The medicine is never the whole treatment. Preparation, the session itself, and integration together are what make it meaningful.