The Process

Each session is responsive to the needs of each person and each moment. Some may follow a structured path based on your goals, while others may unfold more intuitively, guided by presence and curiosity. Often, we’ll slow down together to notice what’s arising — thoughts, emotions, sensations — and let these experiences lead us deeper. At other times, we might gather background information, reflect on insights, develop supportive practices or clarify intentions to guide the direction of our work. There’s no single way that therapy looks or feels. Each client, each session, and each moment is unique and alive. Together, we co-create a space that honors that aliveness.

My integrative approach draws from Humanistic, Existential, Mindfulness-Based, Somatic, and Trauma-Informed approaches to psychotherapy. While each of these perspectives has its own roots, they share a common appreciation for the wholeness of the human experience. Collectively, they support a therapeutic process that is relational, embodied, and attuned to your unique unfolding. 

Below is a sampling of some of the therapeutic elements we may incorporate based on your specific needs and what resonates with you.

  • Mindfulness plays a central role — not just as a technique, but as a way of being. By cultivating awareness of your experience in the present moment with openness and compassion, we create space between stimulus and response. This allows for greater emotional regulation, clarity, and flexibility.

  • The body holds much of what the mind may not yet have words for. A Somatic approach invites us to listen to the body’s subtle messages — sensations, impulses, posture, breath, movement – as part of the healing process. By reconnecting with this embodied wisdom, we can process stored emotion, release tension, and cultivate a greater sense of wholeness. We’ll listen for this felt sense, guiding you toward what feels true.

  • Trauma-informed care can benefit everyone—whether or not you see yourself as having a trauma history—by honoring how the nervous system adapts to overwhelming events, chronic stress, or patterns of disconnection. This kind of healing is rooted in co-regulation: the experience of being with your struggles in the steady, caring presence of another. You're always in charge of the pace. We'll work within your window of tolerance, gently expanding your capacity over time. When needed, we'll develop grounding and calming practices to support you through moments of overwhelm, always centering your agency and emotional safety.

  • In our work together, we may use cognitive restructuring or reframing as a way to shift patterns of thinking that contribute to distress. Rather than simply changing thoughts, this process invites a deeper exploration of the beliefs and assumptions that shape your lived experience. Questioning the narratives you’ve held can allow you to see them from new perspectives. We will work to create space for more adaptive, empowering ways of thinking and being that reflect your values and evolving sense of self.

     

  • Understanding how your mind, emotions, and nervous system work can be deeply empowering. I offer psychoeducation not as a set of cold facts, but as a structured resource to help illuminate your path toward greater understanding and self-determination. We’ll draw on perspectives from foundational theory to cutting-edge science to make sense of your experience as a meaningful response to your history, relationships, and environment.

  • A wellness focus allows us to attend not only to what feels painful or out of balance, but also to what nourishes your vitality. We can explore the dimensions that contribute to your overall wellbeing. This may include emotional, physical, relational, intellectual, spiritual, creative, or environmental factors and beyond. This process is deeply personal, shaped by your own values and goals, and grounded in lifestyle habits or practices that support your resilience and holistic health. This isn’t about striving for perfection. It’s about cultivating awareness of what sustains you, and honoring your strengths as well as challenges.

  • Many people find it helpful to explore the different parts of themselves — the inner critic, the part that wants to grow, or perhaps the part that resists, the part that feels stuck, angry, or afraid. Rather than trying to eliminate these sometimes conflicting parts, we can relate to them with curiosity and care, fostering a sense of harmony within the self. Often, these parts are trying to protect us in ways that once made sense, even if they no longer serve us well in their current roles.

  • Vast parts of ourselves don’t speak in clear language. They emerge in conscious awarenesss through images, associations, dreams, body sensations, or persistent emotional patterns. With an extensive background in Depth Psychotherapy,  I can support you in listening to these subtler forms of knowing, and in giving voice to the unconscious processes shaping our experience.

  • For some, therapy may include a search for meaning beyond the personal — whether through spiritual exploration, non-ordinary states of consciousness, or experiences of awe. I welcome these transpersonal  dimensions with curiosity and respect, helping you integrate them into your life by understanding how they relate to your values, identity, and view of reality.