My Approach to Therapy
I take an integrative approach to therapy because no single therapeutic model works for every person, concern, or stage of life. Person-centered therapy provides the foundation for how I work, while evidence-based, trauma-informed, strengths-based, and mind-body approaches give us different ways to understand what you are experiencing and determine what may help.
Rather than fitting you into a particular type of therapy, I draw from different approaches based on your needs, goals, experiences, strengths, preferences, and what we learn together throughout treatment. Some sessions may involve deeper reflection and emotional processing. Others may focus more on practical skills, changing patterns, mindfulness, self-compassion, or understanding how thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships, and the body interact. Therapy is collaborative and flexible. We can try different approaches, talk about why something may be helpful, pay attention to what works for you, and change direction when something does not.
The Foundation
Person-Centered Therapy
Person-centered therapy is the foundation of my work. I believe therapy begins with a genuine relationship where you can feel heard, respected, understood, and accepted as a whole person rather than reduced to a diagnosis or collection of symptoms. I bring empathy, curiosity, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard into our work while recognizing that you have meaningful knowledge and insight about your own life. Therapy is something we do together rather than something I do to you. My role is to create space for you to explore your experiences openly, understand yourself more deeply, recognize what may no longer be serving you, and move toward changes that feel meaningful to you.
Approaches I Integrate
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
I use CBT to help us explore connections between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences. We may identify patterns contributing to anxiety, depression, avoidance, self-criticism, or other difficulties and experiment with different ways of responding. I do not approach CBT as simply replacing “negative thoughts” with positive ones. Instead, we can slow thoughts down, examine them with curiosity, consider whether they are accurate or useful, and explore how changes in thinking or behavior might affect the larger pattern.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
I integrate DBT when practical skills can help make difficult emotions or situations more manageable. We may draw from mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness to develop strategies you can use both during and outside of therapy. DBT can be particularly useful when emotions feel intense, distress is difficult to tolerate, relationships feel complicated, or you need tools for navigating difficult moments. I also value its emphasis on holding acceptance and change together: recognizing where you are now while continuing to work toward where you want to be.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps us shift from trying to eliminate every uncomfortable thought or feeling toward developing a different relationship with difficult internal experiences. We may practice noticing thoughts without automatically treating them as facts, making room for emotions that cannot simply be solved, clarifying what matters most to you, and identifying actions that move your life closer to those values. ACT creates room for both discomfort and meaningful change without suggesting that difficult emotions mean something has gone wrong.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
MBCT brings together elements of cognitive therapy and mindfulness. I may use it to help you become more aware of thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and familiar patterns without immediately reacting to them. Rather than becoming caught inside a thought or feeling, mindfulness can create enough space to notice what is happening and choose how you want to respond. Depending on your interests and needs, this may include meditation, grounding, breath awareness, body awareness, or other mindfulness practices.
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
Self-criticism, shame, and feeling as though you are never doing enough can make change particularly difficult. I draw from compassion-focused therapy to help you develop a more supportive relationship with yourself, particularly when your internal voice has become harsh or punitive. Compassion does not mean ignoring accountability, pain, or difficult realities. It means learning to respond to suffering and imperfection with greater understanding, courage, and care so that growth does not have to depend on attacking yourself first.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Sometimes part of you wants something to change while another part feels uncertain, afraid, exhausted, or simply not ready. I use motivational interviewing to make room for that ambivalence rather than pushing you toward a decision before you are ready. Together, we can explore what matters to you, what makes change difficult, what might make it worthwhile, and what you want your next step to be. This approach respects your autonomy and recognizes that meaningful change tends to be more sustainable when the motivation for it belongs to you.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Not every problem requires spending months analyzing how it began. Sometimes it is more useful to identify what is already helping, what you would like to be different, and what small changes could move you in that direction. I draw from solution-focused therapy when a practical, strengths-oriented approach fits the situation. We may identify exceptions to a problem, recognize resources you are already using, define achievable goals, and build on progress that may otherwise be easy to overlook.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
I integrate EMDR principles and interventions into trauma-informed treatment when appropriate. EMDR provides a structured framework for understanding how distressing experiences can remain connected to present-day emotions, beliefs, physical sensations, and reactions. Trauma work does not have to mean immediately revisiting the most painful experiences in your life. The process begins with understanding your experiences, identifying resources, strengthening coping and stabilization, and determining together when deeper processing may be appropriate. Preparation, safety, pacing, and your ability to remain grounded are important throughout the process.
Approaches That Shape the Whole Process
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-informed care influences how I approach therapy whether or not trauma is the primary reason you are seeking support. Past experiences can affect the nervous system, relationships, sense of safety, coping strategies, beliefs, and responses to present-day situations. Rather than focusing only on what is difficult now, I am interested in understanding what happened, how you adapted, what those adaptations may have helped you survive or manage, and whether they are still serving you today. You remain involved in decisions about pacing, boundaries, goals, and what we explore.
Strengths-Based Practice
Therapy naturally involves talking about what is difficult, but I do not want difficulty to become the only thing we notice about you. A strengths-based perspective helps us recognize abilities, relationships, values, knowledge, coping strategies, accomplishments, and other resources that already exist alongside the concerns bringing you to therapy. Sometimes treatment involves developing something new. Other times, it involves recognizing capacities you already have and learning how to use them differently.
Mindfulness and Mind-Body Approaches
Mental health does not exist separately from the body. When appropriate and of interest to you, I may integrate mindfulness, meditation, breathing practices, grounding, relaxation, body awareness, gentle movement, or principles drawn from trauma-informed yoga and other mind-body traditions. These practices can complement psychotherapy by helping you notice physical responses to stress, reconnect with the present moment, regulate emotional and physiological responses, and develop additional ways of responding to distress. Mind-body approaches are individualized and are never a required part of therapy.
Putting It Together
You do not need to know which type of therapy you need before we begin. Part of my role is understanding the different approaches available and helping determine which ones may be useful for you.
Treatment may draw heavily from one approach or combine elements from several. What we use may also change over time as your needs, circumstances, and goals change. I want therapy to remain collaborative, flexible, and responsive rather than following a predetermined formula. We can talk about why I am recommending a particular approach, try it together, evaluate whether it is helping, and change direction when something else may fit better.
The goal is not to make you fit the therapy. The therapy should adapt to you.