Psychotherapy
Maybe you've been holding it together but are finding it’s taking a lot out of you. Maybe thoughts or rituals are taking up more room than you’d like. Perhaps past experiences are showing up in your relationships and you’d like to explore this more.
My approach to psychotherapy is relational, depth-oriented, and grounded in current clinical research. I often pull from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (you can read more about that below). I believe that we are shaped through our relationships, and that likewise we heal and grow through relationship.
I work primarily with teens and adults experiencing OCD, PTSD, depression, insomnia, and anxiety. I hold a certification in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), the gold-standard treatment for PTSD. I am also trained in Written Exposure Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, CBT for Insomina (CBT-I), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).
I also work with couples on a limited basis in New York State, primarily employing Emotion-Focused Therapy.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy is a treatment approach that helps people recover from trauma and PTSD. Rather than just talking about what happened, it combines two key elements: processing traumatic memories through structured writing and examining the thought patterns that developed after the trauma.
The underlying principle is that unprocessed trauma can become stuck in our minds, leading to avoidance, anxiety, and distorted beliefs about ourselves and the world. CPT helps break this cycle by encouraging people to confront their memories directly and update unhelpful thinking patterns.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
CBT-I is a structured treatment for sleep problems that targets both unhelpful thought patterns and behavioral habits around sleep.
CBT-I typically combines cognitive therapy with practical behavioral strategies to improve your relaxation and sleep hygiene. This type of therapy occurs over several weeks - so a shorter duration than your standard talk therapy - and has strong research support. CBT-I is considered a front-line treatment for insomnia.
Exposure and Response Prevention
Exposure and Response Prevention is the gold-standard treatment approach for OCD. The core idea is that avoidance and compulsive behaviors - like checking, reassurance-seeking, or rituals - maintain anxiety by preventing people from learning that their feared outcomes won't happen.
In ERP we will gradually expose you to a feared situation, object, or thought while helping you resist the urge to perform your usual coping behaviors. Research demonstrates that as people confront these triggers without engaging in compulsions, their anxiety naturally decreases and they develop confidence in their ability to tolerate discomfort.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Instead of aiming to eliminate painful thoughts and feelings, ACT focuses on changing your relationship with them. ACT believes that psychological suffering comes largely from struggling against our internal experiences rather than from the experiences themselves. If you have ever caught yourself trying to not think of something, and then thinking of it constantly, you have experienced this struggle. (It’s extremely common!)
Through mindfulness practices and behavioral exercises, ACT-oriented therapists support people with living fully even while experiencing discomfort. Research supports ACT as an effective treatment for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and many other conditions.