I’m interested in understanding the human condition/experience, what it takes to change, and what it means to live a good life.
While my experience providing therapy over the past 15 years significantly informs the way I work, there are a number of different influences that guide me as a therapist. These influences include teaching and extensive ongoing training in various schools of psychotherapy, as well as an interest in philosophy, literature, physics, environmental science, art, music, embodied practice, and research on neuroscience and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
I see psychotherapy as being a powerful and centrally organizing experience that can lead one to a better way of life. I also see it as part of a holistic way of living that involves many intentional practices integral to a life lived well.
There are many significant benefits to our well-being as a result of engaging in yoga, exercise, or any physical activity that can bring about a sense of grounding in one’s body, meditation, maintaining proper nutrition and staying hydrated, reading, finding connection with others, and immersing oneself in the natural world. While psychotherapy can help bring about an understanding of what it is that gets in the way of taking care of oneself along these lines, I believe it is important, that to the extent one is able, to not wait for the motivation to engage in a healthier lifestyle before actually taking up any of these practices.
I have worked in the mental health field for over 15 years. My past experience includes work in community-based mental health, college counseling clinics, research on depression through UCSF, and teaching developmental psychology at SFSU.
Education -
M.S. Clinical Psychology, San Francisco State University
B.A. Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Advanced Psychotherapy training -
Two-year Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training Program, The Psychotherapy Institute, Berkeley, CA
Two-year Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis
I am currently a Candidate Psychoanalyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis