Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can serve as a powerful tool for healing, transformation and growth. My therapeutic approach is informed by my clinical training, along with a continued study of, and reverence for, approaches to healing, transformation, and justice that are rooted in a commitment to collective liberation.
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Below are the principles and frameworks that guide my clinical work:
1. Relational:
A relational approach to therapy places a strong emphasis on the therapeutic relationship as a dynamic and collaborative space.
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The exploration of the therapeutic relationship provides insight into how past relational patterns may manifest in the present, and offers an opportunity for being curious about those patterns. A relational approach also means that I am consistently curious about and paying attention to the dynamics within our therapeutic relationship. This involves exploring fears around intimacy and vulnerability, and regularly checking in about the connection's emotional resonance.
2. Psychodynamic:
A psychodynamic lens is rooted in an understanding of how our histories (both personal and intergenerational) and relationships profoundly shape the ways in which we show up in the world. Psychodynamic therapy emphasizes embodied insight as a catalyst for transformation.
My graduate training was heavily rooted in a psychodynamic framework, and I draw significantly from relational, feminist and queer psychoanalytic theory.
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3. Trauma-Informed:
A trauma-informed approach prioritizes agency, choice, and consent.
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Rather than pathologizing coping strategies, a trauma-informed approach invites curiosity about the contexts in which those strategies emerged and how they supported you (and continue to support you) in surviving stressful, overwhelming, and threatening situations. A trauma-informed approach means that I reject any frameworks that reify power dynamics and assume that I, as the practitioner, know best. Tangibly, this means that our work is often slow, creating spaciousness for tuning into your body’s signals, and refusing the urgency of oppressive systems and abusive power dynamics that many are coming to therapy to heal from.
4. Accessibility
​I am interested in supporting our work in being as accessible as possible.
This means I welcome feedback and conversation related to access needs, and continuously reflect on how to support you in feeling safe enough to voice your needs. I do not assume that therapy is an intrinsically safe space; instead, I believe safety is a co-created, dynamic process. My commitment to accessibility is also reflected in my decision to work exclusively online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impacts on disabled, chronically ill, and BIPOC communities.
5. Attachment-Based:
Attachment theory offers a framework for examining our relational patterns and the strategies we use to get our needs met.
Through an attachment lens, our early relational experiences and woundings profoundly impact how safe we feel in our bodies and in the world. Gaining a better understanding of those early experiences of attunement or misattunement can support more compassion and agency in how we relate to our emotional needs. An attachment lens also offers us language for understanding how you and I relate to each other, and the attachment patterns that might be unfolding between us, given the intimacy inherent in the therapeutic relationship.
6. Anti-Oppressive:
Central to an anti-oppressive approach is the acknowledgment that you are the expert of your own experience.
While my intersecting identities, knowledge and experiences offer perspective, I don’t assume I know your world better than you do. An anti-oppressive approach situates our experiences of pain and trauma within a context that recognizes the profoundly dehumanizing impacts of systemic oppression on our bodies, minds, spirits and relationships. I am continuously curious about, and in awe of, the endless ways that we can, and do, resist systemic violence, both individually and collectively.
7. Somatic:
To learn more about Somatic Experiencing, please click here.
Many of my clients come to therapy for support in navigating:
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Gender, sexuality, and identity exploration
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Complex trauma and PTSD
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Sexual trauma
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Life changes and transitions
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Pandemic-related grief and isolation
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Burnout related to: political organizing, school, caregiving, surviving under capitalism
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Developmental and early childhood trauma
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Chronic illness, chronic pain and disability
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Polyamory and consensual non-monogamy
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Depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders
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Communication and boundaries
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Intergenerational trauma
If you are seeking support with any of the concerns or issues listed above, please don’t hesitate to contact me for a free consultation.