I’m an associate clinical social worker and psychotherapist registered with the state of California (#ASW126369). I see young people and adults experiencing problems with living, whether in work, school, play, relationships, or making meaning in their lives. This may show up as challenges with self-esteem, questions related to identity, experiences of grief and loss, body-based and somatic issues, unsatisfying patterns in relationships (personal and professional), creative impasses and blocks, feeling lost or hopeless, excessive worrying, and both over-constricted or overwhelming emotional states. Many of these issues commonly coincide with symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Among colleagues I have a reputation for being warm, thoughtful, collaborative, and engaged. I bring a sensitivity to my patients’ uniquely experienced and intersecting identities (such as class, race, religion, ethnicity, ability, sexuality, and gender), both as these are experienced in the social environment and as they appear “in the room” between us.

I work from a perspective that’s informed by psychodynamic (or psychoanalytic) psychotherapy and Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT). These approaches emphasize our shared role in thinking together about the challenges that bring you to therapy. If you’re curious about working together, I invite you to contact me for a consultation and, perhaps, a first session to see if we’re a good fit. You’re welcome to contact me by email or phone to set up a no-cost consultation.

I’ve worked in a variety of roles throughout the field of mental health: as a crisis counselor for the Suicide Prevention Center, as a therapist providing psychotherapy to young people and their families through the Venice Family Clinic, in an after-school program for teens aging-out of youth social services, and as a primary and group therapist in the Adult Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient program at UCLA. Most recently, I ran psychotherapy groups for patients in the Adult, Child, and Adolescent Inpatient services in the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. Additionally, I work in private practice under the supervision of Dr. Penelope Katz (#LCS 18122).

Before training as a psychotherapist I earned a BA in Philosophy and Literature from St. John’s College, an advanced degree in Literature from the University of British Columbia, and worked in the trades and the arts. I earned my professional degree, a Masters of Social Work, from the Smith College School for Social Work. In addition to my graduate training, I hold a certificate in Psychoanalytic Social Work Practice from the Sue Fairbanks Psychoanalytic Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and am pursuing ongoing training in Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) through the Mentalizing Initiative in Los Angeles.

I continue to engage professionally through training and membership in the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work and the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 39).