Psychoanalytic

Modern psychoanalysts recognize the individuality of each person. We aim to understand the unconscious forces that may interfere with living fulfilling lives. By creating a non-judgmental space, the analyst helps people talk about feelings, thoughts and fantasies they may not have known they had. By accepting all these thoughts and feelings as valuable information, the analyst helps people learn to tolerate painful feelings and accept the disturbing and sometimes intriguing parts of themselves.

Psychoanalysis theorizes that we all have an unconscious that, outside our awareness, directs many of our choices. For this reason, psychoanalysis does not just focus on an individual's behavior but also on why they engage in it. By carefully listening and interacting with the client, I will help bring unconscious or deeply buried thoughts and feelings to the conscious mind so that repressed experiences and emotions, often from childhood, can be brought to the surface and examined.

I approach therapy through a Contemporary Psychoanalytic Lens to understand what is being communicated through one's behaviors and understand how past experiences influence current relationships. As we form a relationship, I have found individuals develop stronger insight, aiding with a deeper understanding of self, and experiencing more lasting and sustainable relief.

Carefully listening to the conflicts and desires hidden within your story, through which we can establish new ways for you to live and thrive.

The current versions of psychoanalytic therapy all examine how a person’s mind works and affects their view of themselves and the world they live in. One central focus is that unconscious factors affect current relationships and behaviors. Psychoanalysis changed since Freud founded it. I focus on how the ways trauma and attachment are central to understanding how the mind works and impacts current thinking, feeling, and behaving, as in my new book, Traumatic Experiences of Normal Development.

Psychoanalysis has so many confusing definitions which are worsened by how unethical therapy often depicted. Psychoanalytic therapy, for me, looks at what we are aware of and digs deeper to see what you might not be aware is there, but is affecting us negatively (ex: internalized transphobia, ableism, social or family messages of our values and worth as humans). In therapy I do ask about our pasts and how they are still currently affecting us and, sometimes, how that can be harmful to our health

In order to heal, you have to truly get to know yourself. Psychoanalytic therapy helps you understand yourself on a more intimate level. By exploring past experiences and relationships, in addition to what is going on for you in the here and now, we can gain greater access to all that is you. This kind of therapy expands your consciousness and opens up worlds of possibility. You will start to connect the dots between past and present, which can be both revelatory and liberating.

I am trained in Freudian drive theory and psychosexual development, ego psychology, object-relational theory, and relational theory.

I worked at Valley Community Counseling Clinic, which provided extensive clinical guidance in classical and contemporary psychoanalytic theory and therapy techniques. At the Los Angeles Institute and Society of Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS) I completed the Altered States of Body and Mind program, examining eating disorders, addictions and compulsions through a contemporary psychoanalytic lens.

Nearly 10 years of clinical experience using Object Relations Psychotherapy.

Jungian Psychology is one of the few that include spirituality in therapy. We live our personal mythologies through collective myths, with symbols that are common across cultures. Jung called these Archetypes, i.e. The Healer, The Wise Woman, The Hero. Exploring our personal Shadow within our unconscious gives us information about our inner conflicts and how to integrate them into a new psychic wholeness. I have years of ongoing training in Jungian Analysis. Creatives Welcome!

Under this umbrella falls many theories and approaches such as : object relations and modern psychoanalysis. Object relations is in a nutshell you relate to others including partners how your caregiver related to you. We all strive for perfection but it is really about being "good enough". Modern psychoanalysis is focusing on protecting from self attacks and self-sabotage. (cue Bestie Boys music). The therapist job is to have the client "say everything."

This approach explore how the unconscious mind influences your thoughts, behaviors and feelings. I believe Anxiety and depressive symptoms are manifestations of deeper challenges that we will uncover together.

I was introduced to modern psychoanalysis through Naropa University, and have continued to deepen with ongoing studies at The Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in Manhattan, NY.