Anxiety and sadness are normal, healthy emotions that we will all face as a part of life. They can be helpful messages from our body that we can learn to listen to in order to guide us in the world. But sometimes these emotions can begin to significantly impact our functioning, feel disproportionate to our stressor, make us feel paralyzed, and hold us back in life. When it comes to mood related issues like this, I take a holistic approach in gathering careful assessment around the history of your symptoms as well as assess for various biological factors that may be influencing them, including medical problems, medications, sleep issues, nutrition factors, substance use practices, and lifestyle choices. 

Once we have a more accurate understanding of what may be driving and maintaining your symptoms, I use a variety of techniques to help you feel less paralyzed by your mood states. This process often includes identifying things that are not working in your life that need to change, modifying lifestyle choices, reworking negative thoughts connected to anxiety or depressive states, working toward behavioral changes to face and overcome some of your fears, and learning tools to help you cope with these mood states to feel less powerless. 

My background as a mental health focused yoga teacher has also given me a deep understanding of the biological nature of the body and ways that our brain and nervous system interact with one another. I have learned how we can influence our mood states through directly impacting our nervous system and biology using various breathing and meditation techniques. I can help you gain an understanding of the ways your nervous system works and tools to influence it, which can be an empowering and game changing experience for learning how to gain control over anxiety and depression throughout your life, using just your body all on its own.

Our experiences in childhood help shape our feelings of self-worth and beliefs about ourselves. As a child, I was an easy target for bullying and I internalized these negative experiences and turned against myself. After trying various avenues to develop my own self-love, what finally made the difference for me was inner child work. I am trained in various inner child techniques, including Internal Family Systems Therapy, which I find are especially effective with modifying self-esteem struggles. Together, we will help you revisit the moments when you turned against yourself and help you work to heal the relationship you have with yourself through experiential techniques you will learn from me that you can apply in your daily life to develop more self-love, self-compassion, and self-acceptance.

One of the joys and stresses of life is that it is continually changing. And we are constantly evolving. I see periods of transition as especially important times to reconnect with ourselves to learn from our life experiences and feel more grounded in the next directions we take in our lives. I have had to start over and shift directions many times in my life and have found that intentional self-reflection during these times makes all the difference in moving you forward in ways that will be fulfilling.

In this sense, I view transitional times as opportunities to reevaluate your life path, and I enjoy helping you discover what new version of yourself will bring you more fulfillment as well as how to overcome the obstacles to you achieving your full potential. Together, we will help you find more life satisfaction as you solidify your values, learn lessons from past hardships, and work to build the life you want.

I spent the majority of my thirties wrestling with existential angst. I had finally finished graduate school, had a great job, and had finally “made it.” And I’ve noticed the same type of angst can arise for many people around this same time in their lives. For so much of our early lives, we are climbing up the next ladder rung in terms of education and dating to get to that final last step of our happily ever after when we have a stable career, a marriage, a family, and that white picket fence. But what happens if you get there and find that something just feels like it’s missing? Or what if you find that the path that society has laid out for us is not one that you actually want?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying these concepts and doing my own personal work to get to a place of finding more fulfillment, joy, purpose, and contentment in my life. So I invite anyone struggling with these sometimes lonely questions to reach out to me. Together, we will help you hone in on the clues that have been present throughout your life pointing you in the direction of greater joy and help you rediscover yourself in a more authentic way, one that may involve de-conditioning yourself from societal, familial, or cultural messages you may have received that could feel misguided for you. Once we’ve untangled what messages are your own versus “someone else’s,” we’ll help you reexamine your values, priorities, and ways of being in the world to lead you to energizing new places. 

I’ve also worked often with college students trying to figure out their majors. I stumbled upon psychology only after changing my major about 4 or 5 times in college, so I get it! Finally giving myself permission to explore the subjects that naturally fed my intellectual hunger instead of doing what was “safe” or most impressive or what I thought would please others around me made a big difference for me. I am glad I followed my intuition as it led me down a path to a fulfilling career where I remain endlessly curious. If you need guidance around how to find something similar in yourself, please reach out.