Areas of Speciality
Trauma + PTSD
Your trust in me and emotional safety is the priority when making the decision to treat trauma, so we will go slow and at your pace. Before any trauma treatment would begin, we would ensure that rapport is built, that you are emotionally safe enough to do the work, and have the necessary tools to cope with what may come up during the treatment. I treat trauma through various forms of narrative and cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Prolonged Exposure (PE). Learn more about PE treatment below this “Areas of Specialty” section.
Anxiety and OCD
Anxiety disorders are the most commonly diagnosed mental health condition in the US. No matter the severity or type of anxiety that you are experiencing, it has the ability to create a lot of internal distress and disruption in our everyday lives. Pain is an inevitable part of life, but you don’t have to suffer in your anxiety anymore. I use several clinical and mindfulness-based approaches to target and treat anxiety, tailoring my approach to the person I’m working with.
Maternal Mental Health
As an identified woman, birth doula, an aunt/godmother to 8 boys, a nanny and someone who desires motherhood in the future, I understand how important and delicate maternal mental health is — after all, moms really make the world go ‘round. I am prepared to support you whether you are family planning, pregnant, postpartum, or a mom of many years! You will have a soft and safe space to process your experiences, grieve, celebrate joy, and learn how to balance your various identities and priorities, including yourself.
Grief/Prolonged Grief/Gun Violence
I have the skillset to help you process any grief that is weighing you down, and numerous years of experience working with victims or co-victims of gun violence. Losing someone to or being impacted by gun violence is an incredibly unique and confusing circumstance that can feel isolating if those around you haven’t dealt with it. It can even be traumatizing to some. My personal and professional experience allows me to meet you exactly where you are in your journey, and can bear all the weight of your grief.
Gender + Racial Minorities
In the world today, a safe place for folks who don’t fit into society’s boxes is a necessity more than ever. You don’t have to try to manage everything alone. I am here to listen as you vent, validate your perspectives, navigate complex circumstances, explore and collaborate on other care that may be important to you, and to help you find ways to not just survive, but to thrive.
What is Prolonged Exposure (PE) treatment?
PE is a highly researched, standardized yet flexible, and effective talk-therapy treatment for those experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Rooted in the cognitive-behavioral umbrella of treatments, it was developed in the 1980s in Philadelphia by Dr. Edna Foa and has 20+ years of research supporting its use. It is not uncommon for people to experience PTSD symptoms in the weeks immediately following a traumatic event; for many people, those symptoms dissipate in a few weeks on their own. For others, they linger and interfere with parts of day-to-day functioning. PTSD often develops when there is avoidance of trauma reminders, thoughts, and images— this is natural, as it’s human nature to not lean directly into pain. However, the avoidance prevents productive processing and corrective learning (i.e. if there has been an assault, we have to relearn that not all people are dangerous). Prolonged Exposure is specifically designed to significantly reduce PTSD symptoms and process traumatic events. PE works just as beautifully for a singular traumatic event as it does for complex PTSD where there have been multiple traumas.
How does Prolonged Exposure work?
The key components of PE treatment are psychoeducation, repeated and gradual in-vivo exposure, and repeated and gradual imaginal exposure.
Psychoeducation: Lots of education on PTSD and how it both develops and sticks around, the rationale behind why PE is designed in the way that it is, treatment procedures, common reactions to trauma, and breathing retraining.
Repeated and gradual in-vivo exposure: Exposure in-vivo (in real life) to safe situations, people, places, or things that are avoided because of trauma-related fear
Repeated and gradual imaginal exposure: Exposure to the trauma memory/recounting the memory and processing.
PE treatment generally lasts for about 8-15 weeks, meaning lasts for 8-15 sessions, though there is of course flexibility. Before PE treatment begins, we will have a few sessions that are dedicated solely to preparing you for treatment. The goals are to introduce you to the treatment, understand how you’re feeling about the treatment itself, to do some PTSD assessments via self-report and interview measures to determine that is the primary problem at hand, and to work out treatment logistics.
What can I expect as a result of going through PE treatment?
My biggest hope is that you gradually start to come back to yourself and re-engage with your life. PE teaches you that trauma-related memories and cues are not themselves dangerous, and therefore don’t need to be avoided. By gradually approaching what you’re avoiding, your PTSD symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares should alleviate if not completely, then nearly so. While trauma memories will always remain, they will lose intensity and you will have restored confidence in navigating situations that you were previously avoiding.