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​Location

I offer psychotherapy sessions to individuals and couples in a very comfortable and relaxed private practice setting. My office is located inside a bungalow suite in a residential neighborhood of Pasadena, CA with plenty of easy street parking.  My intent is always to offer a warm, home-like atmosphere.  

Over the span of my career, I have been privileged to help a diverse population of clients.

Clients visit me from a wide range of areas, including:  Pasadena, Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, Hollywood, Echo Park, Atwater, Glendale, La Canada, Highland Park, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Downtown LA, Studio City, North Hollywood, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Altadena, San Marino, South Pasadena, La Canada, La Crescenta, Montrose, Mt. Washington, Arcadia, Alhambra and more.

 NOTE:  I am currently offering telehealth sessions, exclusively 

How I Work

For the past 24 years that I have performed this vital work, I have continued to marvel at my clients' immense capacity for growth and transformation.  

I have observed that when individuals regularly participate in a process of self exploration within the nonjudgemental, nurturing space that I am privileged to provide, the growth potential is limitless.  

It is my commitment to provide clients with a safe, empathically attuned atmosphere that facilitates healthy emotional risk taking and the subsequent growth that follows.  Together we will create a respite wherein anything can be expressed and explored - where all facets of your authentic self are welcome.

I truly love my work and consider it an honor that clients trust me to join them in this most intimate way.

I am continually inspired, humbled, educated and moved by my clients.

Therapeutic Style

I offer insight-oriented, depth therapy to increase self understanding and the limiting ways in which past experiences and early relationships have shaped a client's current self conceptions, attachment styles and core beliefs about the world.

Since cognitive insight alone is not enough to evoke the long-lasting changes that clients seek, I balance this deeper exploration with an experiential focus on the here-and-now.   We'll do our best to avoid 'Paralysis by Analysis.'

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As clients awaken to and actively participate in the present unfolding of their moment-to-moment felt experience,  new ways of mindfully organizing limiting thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories and even one's sense of self become possible. This transformative experience is reinforced by receiving attuned, compassionate support both from the therapist and from within the client themselves (self attunement).  

Increased conscious choice-making from a responsive, nurturing place replaces the act of merely surviving from a reactive, defensive, habitual place.  The end result is relief from longtime suffering and increased possibilities.  

My work is always aimed at empowering clients to strengthen their voices and learn to effectively access the multitude of inner resources that they already possess.  This process has been  sometimes been described as 'Assisted Self Discovery.'

 
Our work together will be collaborative.  I will encourage you to honor your own internal rhythmic pace while gently challenging you to take emotionally and psychologically healthy risks.  

Achieving an ever evolving sense of mind/body wholeness is a priority.  An emphasis on inviting all internal messaging systems to work collaboratively (mind, body, emotions) helps to support this emerging sense of wholeness.  Learning how to engage these organically interconnected messaging systems provides us with lifelong self nurturance skills.

​This deeper, here-and-now experiential approach works to achieve Memory Reconsolidation vs. mere symptom suppression.   In this way, limiting thoughts/core beliefs, distorted self concepts, traumas and other painful memories are literally rewritten and re-stored in healthier, more empowering ways.  

From this Growth Model, areas of rigidity are thereby replaced with increasing flexibility - a prerequisite for creative problem solving and for the allowing of one's organic evolution to occur with less and less disruption.

Asserting your needs within the relationship is always encouraged and i welcome your feedback throughout the process.
 

​The resources/modalities that I pull from are individually tailored to suit your needs.  My approach is informed by the following:

Somatic Psychology / 'Mind/Body' Work / Body-Centered Therapy

Neuroscience Research 

Attachment Theory & Research 

Mindfulness Skills / Grounding Techniques

Relational Psychotherapy​

Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS)

Gestalt Therapy

​NeuroAffective Touch

Interpersonal Neurobiology

Hakomi Therapy

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy​

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)​​

Holistic, non-diet approach to eating disorders

​Tangible resources cultivating the mind/body dialogue, including sensorial supports that

offer direct contact with clients' bodies:

An array of Essential Oils 

Grounding Stones

Warm NeuroAffective Touch Therapy Pillows

Therapeutic, dense blankets

​An array of Herbal Teas

Licensure

I am a board licensed psychotherapist (MFT)

I am licensed by the Board of Behavior Sciences in the state of California

Education

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Emerson College - Boston, MA

BS, Cum Laude

Gold Key Honor Society

Communications / Film Theory and Criticism

*Emphasis on gender identity studies and psychoanalytic deconstruction of film/tv from a feminist perspective

Ryokan College

MA, Psychology

Training / Experience (ongoing)

Valley Community Clinic - North Hollywood, CA 

(Psychodynamic Training)

[Facilitated Individual, Couples, and Family therapy]

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Eating Disorders Center of California (EDCC - Carolyn Costin's Outpatient Program) - Los Angeles, CA  [Group Therapist]

The Bella Vita Eating Disorders Clinic (Outpatient Program) - Los Angeles, CA

[Primary Therapist: Facilitated Individual, Group, Couples, Family and Multi-Family Groups]

BHC Alhambra Psychiatric Hospital (Both Inpatient & Outpatient programs) - Rosemead, CA

[Primary Therapist: Facilitated Individual, Group, Couples, Family and Multi-Family Groups]

Del Amo Psychiatric Hospital (Intensive Outpatient Program) - Torrance, CA

[Program Coordinator, Primary Therapist]

New Directions (Intensive Outpatient Program) -  Sherman Oaks, CA

[Group Therapist]

Patricia Pitts & Associates (Private Practice) -  Pasadena/Los Angeles, CA

[Facilitated Individual, Couples, and Family therapy]

Jennifer Murdocca, Inc. (Private Practice) - Pasadena, CA

[Current:  Facilitating Individual and Couples therapy]

Postpartum Support International - Training to treat postpartum depression/anxiety/OCD/PTSD

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Completion of  year-long Relational Gestalt Therapy training program via the Pacific Gestalt Institute. 

Currently participating in Dr. Aline LaPierre's year-long NeuroAffective Touch training

Ongoing participation in a variety of specialized workshops, seminars and trainings aimed at staying abreast of the latest research, focusing on areas such as:

​- Somatic Psychology - Various Mind/Body Methods - Body-Centered Therapy - Trauma

- Relational Gestalt Psychology

- Mindfulness ​

- IFS (Internal Family Systems Therapy)

Groups

In addition to conducting both individual and couple's therapy for the past 24 years,

I also possess extensive experience facilitating a wide variety of psychotherapy groups within

PHP (Partial Hospitalization Programs), IOP (Intensive Outpatient Programs), inpatient and private practice settings.  

Partial list of these groups, includes:

Group Process, Coping Skills, Multi-Family Therapy & Educational Groups, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Art Therapy, Drama Therapy, Mindfulness Skills, Emotion Regulation Skills Group, Body Image Group, Relapse Prevention Groups, DBT Skills Group, Mealtime Support, etc.

Professional Affiliations

CAMFT - California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

BBS - Board of Behavioral Sciences

PSI  - Postpartum Support International

NEDA - National Eating Disorders Association

LAGPA - The Lesbian and Gay Psychotherapy Association