dynamic therapy for a more dynamic life

PSYCHOTHERAPY IN SANTA BARBARA, CA + ONLINE

Welcome, I’m glad you found your way here.

Whether you’re new to therapy or seeking a fresh approach, I’d be honored to help you work toward the change you seek.

All it takes on your end is a willingness to take an honest look at yourself and your past.

My job is to make sure your therapy experience as safe, nonjudgmental, and impactful as possible.

Hi, I’m a licensed psychologist offering psychotherapy in Santa Barbara, CA, and virtually throughout CA. I've been in the mental health field for over fifteen years, with most of those spent as a private practice psychotherapist.

I have experience treating a broad range of mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and addiction, as well as diagnosable conditions like OCD, BPD, bipolar disorder, and more.

I specialize in a form of therapy called ISTDP (Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy). ISTDP is a well-researched approach designed to help individuals achieve emotional breakthroughs safely, rapidly, and lastingly.

My approach is…

Shame-Sensitive: Healing begins by moving from self-criticism to self-compassion, starting with exploring the roots of your inner critic.

Depth-Oriented: Uncovering repressed memories, emotions, and desires ensures transformation goes beyond surface-level symptom relief.

Experiential: My here-and-now approach harnesses the body’s wisdom and unconscious mind, moving past purely intellectual processing.

Integrative: I honor your full identity— cultural, ethnic, political, religious, and spiritual—ensuring every aspect of you is valued and welcome in the therapy relationship.

Intensive: My training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) enables me to guide clients toward breakthroughs more rapidly than traditional therapy approaches, fostering rapid, deep, and lasting emotional resolution.

Custom-Tailored: I adapt my approach based on your unique needs and goals, steering clear of one-size-fits-all frameworks.

Values and Ethical Commitments

  • I’m here not judge you for your life choices. I’m sure you’ve received enough judgment already. I believe good therapy involves replace harsh self-judgment with curiosity, self-compassion, and realistic self-appraisal.

    I’ll never pressure you into changing. My role is to support you while you decide if, when, and how you want to change. 

    I will not pretend to know how you should live your life. I believe in empowering you to get in touch with your own inner compass, not mine.

  • I believe good therapy I about recovering your humanity and dignity. You are more than the symptoms you experience and the diagnoses you carry. You are a complex, unfathomably deep person who is infinitely more than the sum of your symptoms and diagnoses.

  • Therapy doesn’t have to be a mysterious, vaguely defined process. I’m committed to making therapy clear and understandable for you. To that end, I try to use as little psychobabble as possible.

    I strive to be as straightforward and honest as is can. I’ve learned that people can often handle more of the truth than we give them credit for.

  • I am not perfect or all-knowing. I am a wounded healer.I’ve had my share of breakdowns and breakthroughs, wins and losses, just like you.

    I am not a “neutral” therapy bot. I don’t practice in “blank screen” therapy. I believe in being the real me in the therapy room.