Attachment-based Therapists in Charlottesville, VA

Therapy is a great gift to yourself. The connection provided in a safe, therapeutic relationship is healing. I encourage self exploration to find and heal wounds that are blocking one's own self-love and connection to the authentic self that feels true and right. I provide a gentle, accepting presence to join you on your journey toward increased life satisfaction. I enjoy working with adults struggling with life transitions, anxiety, shame, depression, anger and grief or just feeling stuck.

In my practice, I offer adult and couples therapy, specializing in trauma, anxiety, loss, and relationship distress. I collaborate with individuals and couples who experiences fear, sadness, anger, and disconnection who seek a pathway to healing, greater emotional connection, and sense of well being. I utilize evidence-based therapies, including attachment-based , mindfulness, trauma-informed, and emotionally-focused approaches. I incorporate somatic & sensorimotor strategies, IFS, & EMDR to help heal trauma. My style is calm, non-judgmental, & interactive. I value the opportunity to partner with clients on their journey.

Clients coming to see me are generally in one of three categories: 1) People who are unhappy and know why. They have experienced loss, mistreatment, oppression, trauma, major illness, discrimination, or other experiences that they identify as the source of their distress. 2) People who are unhappy and don't know why. They may feel depressed, anxious, or dissatisfied with their lives and not know the reason. 3) People who feel okay but want to come to life more fully and feel even better.

I work with school age children who are struggling with depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, behavioral issues, low self-worth, and social isolation. I work very closely with parents to help them manage their children’s emotional and behavioral needs, and I usually involve parents in sessions. I have a lot of experience working with children, adolescents and their parents. I also have experience bringing healing to youth victims of trauma.  In addition, my work with parents has provided me with experience working with young and middle-age adults.

Accompaniment matters. Relationships transform. We sit together to access the health that is at the center of every human being, even when one of us can’t feel it. We sit because healing happens in relationship, access to true self is made easier in the presence of another person’s settled nervous system, and because your healing matters for the health of all of us. Whether you are facing overwhelm, anger, a frozen feeling, compulsions, depression, trauma, anxiety, or facing other difficult experience, we can touch it with awareness and respect. Our experience includes joy, includes pain, and includes connection and compassion.

** NOT ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS-- Please click on the website button on the left side of my profile to receive practice information.** Focusing on couples' strengths and attachment styles, I help partners understand the normal ups and downs of attunement and misattunement, learn and practice mindfulness and emotional regulation, how to heal small and large ruptures and build deeper emotional and physical intimacy and trust. I have experience assisting partners repair their relationship after infidelity or breach of trust. If reconciliation is not possible, I help couples through the separation and divorce process.

Problems are not "just in our heads." Problems affect our bodies, too. We respond to them through our thoughts, feelings, and actions. I believe that "talk therapy" is important. I also believe it is important to work beyond this modality in order to give people an opportunity to integrate cognitions, feelings, and the body. This allows people to release old patterns so they can act on experiences in new, more effective ways - and change becomes possible.

Do you feel chronically disconnected or stuck in unhelpful patterns despite "knowing better"? This misalignment might be affecting your physical health, your relationships, your sense of self, and your visions for the future. While many of the strategies you relied upon in early life were both necessary and adaptive, they can also become what hold you back later in life. What if we explore some of your origin stories and update those defaults to better reflect who you are, instead of who you believed you had to be? What if we deepen your self-belonging, thereby strengthening your capacity to connect more effortlessly with others?