While I received generalist education and training, I specifically practice Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, a framework for treatment drawing on the long clinical, academic, and research tradition of Psychoanalysis. This approach is built on a few basic assumptions: (a) that much of our mental life occurs outside of our awareness; (b) that what occurs outside of our awareness shapes what goes on within our awareness (e.g., our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors); (c) that our mental world is shaped by our experiences throughout development, and that significant relationships play a particularly important role; and (d) that all of our behaviors and choices are a complex result of multiple, overlapping, often contradictory needs, feelings, and impulses, some of which we might know, much of which we don’t. These core assumptions (though this is not an exhaustive list) lead to a therapy concerned with attempting to understand and bring awareness to what motivates one’s behavior and ways of interpreting life experiences.

This is accomplished by challenging you to speak as openly as possible about all of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions as they occur in our meetings, resisting any urges to censor or restrict yourself, so that we may both direct our full attention to what you say, how you say it, and, importantly, what you try not to say. Over time, we will come to observe patterns in your thinking, feelings, decision-making, and relationships, which can give us important insight into those things outside of your awareness that shape your life. As your understanding of yourself grows, you have the opportunity to find new, creative ways to express yourself, meet your needs, and pursue your desires in life, relationships, and otherwise.