Services
- Individual
- Couples
- Family
- Group
About My Clients
My patients are adults striving to have more authentic and meaningful relationships and to overcome obstacles in their lives, from addiction to trauma to social anxiety and depression. Some are new to therapy and have no idea where to begin, and some come in with clear goals and a strong sense of what they need. In any case, my patients and I work together to understand what is keeping them from the life they want and to find ways that work for them to remove those obstacles.
My Background and Approach
I am a clinical social worker licensed in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, which means I apply a social justice lens to all of my patients of seeing them fully in the context of their world and society, including the stigmas and barriers that may affect their mental health and symptoms. My training requires that I honor every patient's dignity and self-determination, meaning I don't impose my own beliefs or expectations, though I may make recommendations or offer psycho-education to help illuminate a patient's symptoms or experience. My orientation is psycho-dynamic and interpersonal, so I do draw on learning about a patient's past and family-of-origin to illuminate how that may be affecting their experience now, and I stay present and reflect and inquire about our relationship as a way to shed light on how other relationships in the patient's life may be going. I am interactive, and use action methods if a patient is open to it and finds it helpful, such as psychodrama or improv games.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I am becoming increasingly involved in efforts to address social justice, and particularly racial justice, in American society. I take and provide trainings to help address racial bias and White supremacy among White clinicians and people, and am reading and educating myself as much as I can on racial issues from the perspective of people of color by listening to podcasts such as Seeing White and reading books such as White Fragility. I am also attempting to make statements and encourage organizations I am in to examine their institutional practices that may diminish participation by people or color or other marginalized people. Additionally, I am an aspiring ally to Queer and Trans people and continue to learn and practice in a way that I hope is respectful and helpful to people within those communities. I currently provide a pro bono space in my practice to Give An Hour, which aims to provide mental health treatment to Veterans that can't be served within the VA system.