Psychodynamic Therapists in North Hills, San Diego, CA

Do you struggle to maintain balance in your mood and mindset as a result of your high-stress life or profession? Are you struggling with anxiety, depression, or OCD as a result of that stress? If so, you are not alone. There are ways to help you when these emotions arise, pinpoint the triggers, and improve the way you approach them so they don’t overwhelm you. ERP, CBT, Psychodynamic, and Mindfulness Skills are all treatment methods in which I have been trained to assist you in living a much more fulfilled and balanced life. Therapy can help you gain control over the issues that are preventing you from reaching your full potential.

I am a licensed psychotherapist focused on working with adults and elders (65+). I work with clients to help them be better able to manage life's challenges, increase self esteem and improve communication skills. In my work, I favor a holistic approach, where all aspects of the person - mental, emotional, behavioral, physical - are addressed, and I employ a blend of psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral and mindfulness methods, to enable people to learn to shift their thinking, change their behavior, and live in the present with a more balanced life, and a deeper sense of well being.

I am a psychologist, licensed in NYS and CA, offering teletherapy to residents of both states. I am also a returned Peace Corps volunteer and aspire for cultural humility and sensitivity in my practice. My training background is in child, adolescent, and adult individual and group therapy, as well as in neuropsychology from teaching hospitals: Brown, Harvard, and NYU; I completed my postdoctoral training at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. I use an integrated approach to treatment, incorporating a range of evidence-based therapy and my broad training experience to meet the diversity of presentations of my clients.

You're feeling overwhelmed by the racing thoughts in your mind. It's been difficult to trust yourself, set boundaries, and stick to them. That can be exhausting and probably has you feeling under-appreciated, resentful, and burnt out! Imagine what it might feel like to be more grounded and resourced in your body and mind. Imagine feeling more confident in your voice and speaking about your needs. I enjoy supporting women and queer folks to lead a more integrated and aligned life. If any of this resonates with you, we might be a good fit :)

Sharing our inner experiences with someone can often feel frightening, which is exactly why I place such an importance on connection and acceptance in the therapeutic process. I aim to create a safe environment that will invite my clients to delve deeper into their personal narrative, as I truly believe we are not built to process emotions alone. As humans, we all have a propensity to grow and become our true selves, unfortunately we aren’t always gifted with the circumstances to allow it. I am passionate about creating a space for not only self-discovery and self acceptance, but to allow clients to feel seen, heard, and valued.

I view psychotherapy as a process of self-discovery, emotional and psychological growth, and relational understanding. I value the importance of forming a supportive, collaborative, and trusting relationship in the hopes that you may feel safe to discuss your concerns openly and honestly. My areas of expertise include working with children, adolescents, and adults with concerns in identity development, relationships, parenting, trauma, as well as mood, anxiety and developmental disorders. My therapeutic style combines relational psychodynamic and person-centered approaches.

Welcome, if you have found yourself here, it means you are thinking about making some changes in your life. Making the decision to begin a journey of self discovery can be scary to say the least. May I share some of my thoughts with you. I believe in the, "Law of Correspondence", which states that what is going on in our outer world is nothing more than a reflection of what is going on in our inner world. As within, so without, as above, so below. It would be my honor, and privilege to help you discover your best self.

Modern life is grueling, especially when trying to grieve a loss or process overwhelming trauma. It might feel like an almost insurmountable feat just to find a safe environment within which all of your emotions are honored and accepted. There is a sense that we must trudge on and deny intense feelings and thoughts in order to present a more palatable image to the world, which can compound sadness, anxiety, and loneliness. I understand how exhausting this can feel.

In the first few sessions together, my goal is to understand what struggles you are currently experiencing that are causing you distress, and then provide you tools to help minimize those stressors to get to a more stabilized place. Once you are feeling more grounded and able to manage your current stressors, then I encourage the exploration of why these things are present in the first place, where they are coming from, and ultimately when they were initially learned and began. I believe that helping you uncover these important pieces of information are vital to your long-term success in becoming the best version of you possible!

I specialize in working with individuals. I have a particular interest in helping people who are capable of functioning well, but who suffer from depression, anxiety, or relationship issues. I work with individuals who engage in self-defeating patterns who want support negotiating life transitions. I am invested in providing compassionate support for my clients around relationships, job, and family issues. I work with people who are integrating beneficial and challenging psychedelic experiences. I believe therapy is like going to the gym for your mind. Together we will build your resilience to roll with life's ups and downs.

You might be in survival-mode, and that makes sense. Together, we can explore ways to cultivate safety and recovery in your life. My approach emphasizes genuine curiosity, self-compassion, and non-judgment to empower your journey towards healing. Whether you're seeking support for trauma, self-esteem challenges, negative self-talk, anxiety, depression, shame, or difficulties in your relationships, I can help.

I specialize in adult individual psychotherapy. I have worked in multiple outpatient treatment facilities, including community mental health, public high school, federal career training facility, and university counseling centers. I am interested in and have experience in the treatment of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, emotion regulation, and relationship difficulties. I enjoy providing mental health services to the San Diego community, where there are many people with diverse life experiences.

One of the most important ingredients in successful therapy is a good therapeutic fit. My approach is to provide an empathic, warm and supportive environment, and work collaboratively to identify and make sense of your unique struggles and particular obstacles. I work with adolescents and adults and use both insight-oriented and skills-based approaches to find short and long-term solutions to intercept the patterns that are interfering with your personal growth. I also provide supervision and consultation to psychologists and psychology trainees.

I have extensive experience in working with adults, couples, children, and families who have suffered a traumatic event, dealing with anxiety and or depression, relationship issues, stress, mood issues, or any other areas/issues that disrupt your daily life. If you are at a point where you, or someone you know, may benefit from having a non-biased, nonjudgmental therapist with fresh views and guidance, feel free to contact me. I believe treatment should be a collaboration that includes your values, the latest research, and my long-term experience in the field. I am committed to helping you make lasting changes in your lives.

My areas of focus include life changes, relationships, trauma, grief, recovery, women's issues and perimenopause/ menopause transitions. Changes to our lives both expected and unexpected, can interrupt our sense of wellbeing or divert us from our desired paths, making it hard to find our way back. We get lost in the heartbreaks, sadness, unmet needs, or trauma responses that fractures how we view and know ourselves. Working our way through unfolding memories, processing traumas, validating feelings, and honoring where we hurt, makes space for more love, connection, compassion and fulfillment. All of which, you deserve.

I am also an Educational Therapist working in various schools and clinics. I work with children, adolescents, and parents and all the professionals that orbit their lives. School Anxiety is a particular area of interest. The colleagues I work with support the multi-diciplinary approach to treating the whole child. Professionals I work with have specialties not limited to speech, language, vision, psychiatry, family counseling, parenting, neurodevelopment, teaching, play and more. As an Educational Therapist I offer children and adults with learning disabilities and other learning challenges a wide range of intensive, individualized interventions designed to remediate learning problems.

Finding and embracing an authentic sense of self is one of the core missions of adult life. What too often corrupts this search, though, is the phenomenon of shame - a destructive force if there ever was one. Shame can contribute to substance use, depression, anxiety, interpersonal struggles, poor health outcomes, maladaptive trauma responses, and, at extremes, psychosis and suicidal ideation. Such maladies, when approached in the context of a compassionate and trusting therapeutic relationship, can be transformed into signs pointing the way toward a meaningful and fulfilling sense of self.

Looking forward to a better tomorrow? Looking forward to understanding today? Each new phase in life may bring challenges that can cause you to question who you are or what you're doing? Utilizing a collaborative approach in understanding your heart and mind may help ease problem areas you are struggling with. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in children, adolescents, and families. I use a variety of therapeutic techniques unique to each individual.

Many struggle with anxiety and depression, and this is not uncommon. Whether it be nervousness, sadness, relational difficulties, or feeling like we aren't where we are "supposed to be" in life, there are many obstacles that cause us to feel "stuck." My job as a therapist is to help you get "unstuck" by aiding you in better understanding the underlying factors contributing to these difficulties, many of which are often rooted in thinking habits and relational patterns. My primary focus is on anxiety and depression, and how the combination of unhealthy thinking and unhealthy relational patterns cause us to feel anxious and depressed.