Services
About My Clients
My specialties include working with individuals struggling in their relationships, providing affirming and informed care to the LGBTQ+ communities with a focus on trans health, body image issues and chronic dieting, and grief and loss. I provide a safe therapeutic space that is compassionate, attuned, and collaborative. I see therapy as a place where we are curious together, where we seek reconnection with ourselves and others, and where we practice self-compassion as way through emotional pain.
My Background and Approach
I am originally from the South and made my way to California for graduate school. I hold a doctorate in psychology (Psy.D.) from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. I also hold a doctorate in sociology (Ph.D.) from Stanford University. In addition to my private practice, I am a clinical psychologist at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where I work primarily in the Transgender Behavioral Health Program. Prior to joining the LA LGBT Center, I worked for ten years in university counseling. I was a clinical psychologist at the University of Redlands Counseling Center, later serving as Associate Director. Before Redlands, I worked in the counseling centers of The Claremont Colleges and the University of California, Santa Barbara. My prior graduate training in sociology has proven essential in my practice. I take seriously the impact of social and cultural forces on our lives and understand my clients, myself, and our work as shaped by multiple systems in which we live.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
My personal and professional values were profoundly shaped by growing up in the South and then being exposed to sociology in college, which not only turned what I thought I knew on its head, but also instilled in me a deep commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion. I integrate the sociological lens into my clinical work. I take seriously the impact of structural forces, including institutionalized inequality, white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, heterosexual dominance, cisgenderism, ableism, and weight oppression, on our daily lives. Further, I see how the beliefs aligned with these structural forces can take up residency in our hearts and minds. With this framework, psychotherapy is a place to explore and uncover the often hidden ways these forces impact psychological health and also a place to build resilience and hope in the face of discrimination and systemic barriers. Psychotherapy is an act of revolution that has the power to heal both individuals and communities.