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Counseling and Psychotherapy
Therapy is creating a safe space to strengthen your relationship with yourself so that you can persist, work through and overcome any of life's challenges. Though I enjoy working across the spectrum of mental health and wellness, I offer a specialization in helping children and adults to cope with and thrive through Anxiety and Trauma.
Call today to schedule an appointment!
Areas of Focus
Anxiety, Anger, Trauma or PTSD, Childhood Abuse or Neglect, Depression, Life Transitions, Relationships, LGBTQI, Parenting, Sleep, Stress Management, Recovery from Substance Abuse
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Expertise
Trauma, Co-Occurring Disorders, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Relational Psychotherapy
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Your Investment
What is Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is an immersive relational experience in which frequency of sessions invites the deepest parts of ourselves to come to life so that we can put the past in the past, freeing up our fullest selves.
FAQs:
Will you shrink my mind? No. Psychoanalysis is about expanding one's mind and possibilities of self and relationship.​
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Will you tell me my problems are about sexual wishes about my parents? Probably not. Contemporary psychoanalysis is not about understanding people through a Victorian-era lens, or fitting you into any rigid framework - it is about understanding you from you - with the possibility of incorporating a kaleidoscope of ways of thinking about the human experience.
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Will you misinterpret my trauma as wishes? No. I am a member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, and am quite aware of the realness of trauma. Though, as a psychoanalyst, our focus will be on you as a person and your unique experience. Psychoanalysis isn't about techniques, like hypnosis, DBR, EMDR, IFS, etc. It is about you, you in relationships, your development and growth as a person through it all, and how trauma has thwarted your ability to connect with your self. I may also incorporate some "techniques", if that would be in your best interest and necessary.
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Do I have to lie on a couch? No. Freud said he asked his patients to lie on a couch because he couldn't stand to look at them. I enjoy relating to others. It's also important to be with one another, face to face.
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Where did you study? The Psychoanalytic Institute of Philadelphia (2010-2012) and the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity - IPSS (2020-2025).
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Do you teach psychoanalysis? Yes. I have taught for the Psychoanalytic Institute of Tehran, the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and I am part of the Fellowship Program at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Philadelphia.​
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Is it expensive? Yes. Psychoanalysis is an investment in yourself, and an invitation for me to invest myself in you. I am able to negotiate fee if necessary, due to the necessity of frequent meetings, but my primary way of "giving back" is by teaching and supervising. If you need a significantly reduced fee, please contact your local psychoanalytic institute to see if you might work well with a psychoanalytic candidate. I'm happy to help guide you.
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Does it last forever? No and it depends. It will be longer term, and most people work with me for at least three years, some longer, and some may choose choose to stay in therapy with reduced frequency of sessions.
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​Will you make me dependent on you? No. I won't "make" you anything - you have agency in your work with me. There may be periods when you might *feel* dependent, and that's ok. If it doesn't *feel* okay, that might be just what's coming to life to work through. Just as we all need to experience attachment and individuation in our earliest years, that too may come to life in the arc of our experience together.
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Any other questions or fears? Perfectly understandable.
Reach out and give me a call, we can set up a time for a consultation.
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After​​​ six intensive years of postgraduate psychoanalytic education and supervision, psychoanalysis remains difficult to describe, perhaps in part because it is an experience that is different for everyone. A meaningful psychoanalytic therapy is a co-created experience between two people and in this way, will be a necessarily unique and deeply personal. It's also hard to put into words because psychoanalysis isn't primarily cognitive. Given this complexity and challenge of capturing an essence into words, generally speaking, psychoanalysis means meeting at least three times each week, an immersion into your self and self and relational experience. In this space, we invite the deepest parts of yourself to come to life, as this time around, as an adult and with someone who you can trust to be your guide, you can feel experientially what it was and is that inhibits you or draws you away from your core, vital self. This is the place of security, connection and creativity. It is the frequency of sessions that open into the many dimensions of our self and experience - cognitive, behavioral, relational, somatic, physiological and into different self states and states of consciousness, from which we can really come to connect with our full and vital self. There is also great relief in really knowing with our full being that don't have to fear our internal world so that we can just be - in our most fullest, creative way.