Is there something wrong with me?
You’ve lived with self-doubt for so long that you’ve started to wonder if it’s actually protecting you—or if it’s just keeping you disconnected from yourself and the people around you. Maybe you’re constantly scanning for signs that someone is mad at you, or feeling a heavy pressure to do everything "right" just to keep the world from falling apart.
I believe we all come into this world knowing who we are, but life has a way of making us doubt that. Therapy is the process of getting back to what you already know, somewhere beneath the doubt.
Together, we’ll get curious about the ways you have survived in the world when it didn’t feel safe to be your full self. My role is to help you separate your survival strategies from your true wants, boundaries, and needs. When you know the difference between who you are versus how you’ve had to survive, you gain the freedom to choose: when to use those old tools, when to build new ones, and when to simply be yourself.
Whether we are processing deep-seated patterns or building a practical toolkit for daily life, the goal is always the same: learning what you want out of life and helping you live accordingly.
What to expect from therapy with me:
What will therapy look like?
We will spend the first two sessions just getting to know you and your story. By the time you leave the second session, we will have talked through a shared understanding of what is causing the problem you want to address, what your therapy goals are, and what therapy style we will use to get you to where you want to be. We will hold this shared understanding flexibly, and update it with new insights you have about yourself as therapy progresses.
Will you help me get to know myself better?
Absolutely! If you sometimes feel as though your mind, body, and nervous system take over and drive your life for your without your permission, therapy will help you understand yourself well enough to get into the driver seat, with your mind, body, and nervous system as helpful companions on your road trip.
Will you help me let go of negative thoughts about myself?
All of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors make sense. Once you understand how they make sense, you will learn that there is nothing wrong with you. We will talk through specific skills and practices to help you really “get” that there is nothing wrong with you. This will take time and practice.
Will you help me make sense of what I want and need, and what is holding me back?
You bet.
Will you understand that I am doing my best within my family, community, job/career, and/or culture, and that I can’t just “be myself” all the time?
It can be frustrating when people (and therapists) suggest to “just be yourself.” You may be a naturally assertive person but have a boss who does not respond well to assertiveness. You may know that you need to ask for something from your spouse, but their family could respond poorly, triggering a chain reaction that could make your life more difficult. We will take your specific situation into account and help you to recognize your survival strategies so that you can use them by choice strategically when you need to, but also stop using them when you don’t actually need them.
Will you help me learn where I can take responsibility to change things that aren’t working for me?
I will give you honest feedback based on what I notice in the patterns you share with me, as well as anything that comes up in real time in the therapy room that might be relevant to your goals. I will not automatically validate your go-to behaviors if I see evidence that they may be causing you harm.
Do you understand disability? What about neurodivergence?
I love working with autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD clients, and have done so quite a bit. I live with a disability myself (Hard-of-Hearing), and I understand the struggles as well as the new possibilities that open up when we learn to embrace our identities. I also understand the lived experience of being on the line between different worlds such as the hearing world and the Deaf world.
Are you LGBTQ-affirming?
❤️🧡💛💚💙🩷💜🖤🤎