Learning Leader Empowering Others to Create, Discover, Inspire, and Belong
family therapy
Is your family going through a tough time right now?
Truth is, I believe you ARE doing the best you can. The perfect time to seek help in therapy is before small problems become bigger ones. I encourage families to get “check-ups," especially if they have a question or discomfort about how someone in the family is doing. It's never too late to get help. Trained as a family therapist, I place a strong emphasis on how relationships impact the way we thrive. Families (including the ones we choose) often hold clues and resources that unlock the healing process. So, involving whole families in treatment has the potential to create powerful changes, as family members feel a part of the experience, contributing rich understandings of the issues.
It's often useful to alternate between the whole family and a smaller part of the unit (e.g., just parents, an individual, or two siblings) for one or more sessions. Developing a trusting relationship and working towards agreed upon therapeutic goals will take different amounts of time for each member of the family. For example, teens are often not the ones requesting therapy, so there can be some apprehension around entering a therapist’s office. When working with adolescents, the therapeutic process can feel slower, as processing significant issues requires high levels of trust and safety which can extend the therapeutic work. Children need to feel comfortable with a therapist. To develop this kind of relationship, it’s my job to hold a brave space to enable your kids to communicate thoughts and feelings and feel truly heard. I provide that space through creative family therapy interventions and parent coaching. For adolescents alone, traditional talk therapy combined with creative interventions promoting healthy communication and identity formation are used.
With improving communication always a useful goal, together we will carve out space to express and explore difficult thoughts and emotions, to better make sense of each others' behaviors and points-of-view. It's my job to help tailor the experience toward change, but to make useful changes in our lives, we must first invite each other to the table.
relationship counseling
Are you and your partner ready to live more fulfilling lives together?
Truth is, lovers often wait years before seeking out a relationship professional. I get it! Fighting with the one you love most can be so painful. You may even feel like it's your fault or that your partner is really the problem. But guess what...neither you nor your partner are the problem. The problem is the problem. The everyday emotional dance we all find ourselves in swallows us up.
Whatever life stage you may be in with your partner, I can help you work through any presenting issues, and move toward feeling more loved and supported. Sessions with me will really slow down those moments where conflict or misunderstandings happen. Together we will make sense of how you and your partner get stuck in these subtle motions over and over again. We all have rich inner worlds, and you both deserve a safe place to open up and share parts of them. One of the key differences to relationships that thrive, is the ability of both partners to turn to each other, risk sharing something vulnerable, and safely connect around needs, wants, and desires—we can create that.
But relationship coaching isn't just for those with specific issues anymore. Many seek out a therapist for premartial counseling or to build upon what's already going well.
Sessions typically include both partners. Initially, following our first meeting together, we will schedule individual sessions for each of you so you can have a full session with me. We will then meet together again, at which point I will share my impressions, and together we will formulate a mutually designed treatment outlook. We may meet weekly or every other week depending on your needs and scheduling constraints.
So, whether you're just dating, married, engaged, same-sex, multi-partnered, trans, gender expansive, living together or not - I can help.
grief and loss
No matter how resilient you are, at some point we all encounter loss. Whether it's the ending of a marriage, developing a chronic illness, financial hardship, or death of someone we love, grieving these changes can feel like the end of the world. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, but there are healthy ways to face emotional pain, find joy in unlikely places, make new meaning, restore harmony, and move on with the business of living.
men, boys, and developing a healthy sense-of-self
We hear that being a man has its advantages. You rarely hear how developing healthy masculinity can feel like a real burden. Whatever it means to be a "man," much less a "good man," comes with a set of complex and hidden challenges that typically go unnoticed and unheard.
Sometimes us guys are reluctant to talk about our inner worlds. We may even be disconnected from them. You can coax us into getting that physical check-up at the doctor, but the thought of going to therapy is admitting defeat, having to ask for help, or a last-ditch waste of time where we'll be forced to "get in touch with our emotions." And of course we feel that way. There is a pattern of socializing vulnerability, sensitivity, and responsiveness out of men and boys in our culture.
Well, let me clear the air. Relational and emotional health are just as important as physical health. In fact, they go together like peanut butter and jelly. I've been coaching men and boys on developing healthy communication, relationships, and masculinity for over a decade. As a therapist, I regularly work with men (both cisgender and transgender), who are struggling with body issues, dealing with anger, feeling pressure to manage work and social lives—and these are contributing to anxiety and depression.
So, if curious about therapy, shoot me an email. I'm listening.
polyamory and multi-partner relationship support
Consensual relationships that encompass multiple people are not for everyone. However, in my experience many clients find them to be rewarding for a lifetime. When the time comes that you and your partners are seeking therapy, locating a clinician who is affirming of, and adept in the language of open polyamorous relationships can be an obstacle - even in Atlanta. If you're currently open, poly, in a polycule, or if you're curious about these kinds of relationships, I can help you navigate the complexity of multiple intimate partners.
gender affirming care
I specialize in working with clients who identify as gender nonbinary, transgender, gender expansive, gender queer, those who aren't quite sure, and perhaps some that I haven't listed here.
Exploring your gender identity is not a sign of mental illness. Though, you may be experiencing some distress and symptoms related to it. For this, many people find gender affirming care highly beneficial.
Sessions may include assessment, exploring your gender identity, as well as affirming care plans related to acceptance and commitment to your gender identity and expression. If affirming medical treatment is a goal of yours, or if you have already begun/undergone treatment (e.g., hormone therapy, surgery), this may require that your primary care provider and I collaborate to a small extent. I regularly write letters for medical treatment (e.g., HRT, affirming surgeries).
Any decisions around your gender affirming care are made collaboratively, and with the highest sensitivity. A care plan may include, if possible, working alongside those closest to you, i.e., intimate partner(s), family members (including those you consider family). As a trained couple and family therapist, I can assist in navigating these tender moments, providing support, resources, and information.
work-life support for the busy professional
Being a rock star in your chosen occupation, without becoming overly occupied by it is a challenge worth our focus and attention in therapy. With so many of us pulled between work projects, building relationships, responsibilities at home, and squeezing in a social life, it's no surprise that more than 1 in 4 Americans describe themselves as overly stressed.
I totally understand—I'm super passionate about what I do and you'll find me talking about ideas with other clinicians ALL the time. Like you I've also been known to sacrifice my well-being for a deadline; however, if I may paraphrase a line from singer-songwriter Emily Saliers, "While your flame never faltered, even in the fiercest wind, even the strongest wick grows dim and sick when it's burning at both ends."
A certain amount of stress is useful in spurring creativity, but the key to a healthy relationship with stress lie in a couple of places: Rhythm + Harmony
relational health for clinicians
Of course, we clinicians who provide care for the public also need brave spaces to accept care for ourselves—not only to nurture relational health in general, but also to ensure a healthy boundary between our personal stuff and our work with patients.
Whether you're a mental health professional, primary care doctor, surgeon, nurse, physical therapist, or specialize in communication disorders, you may be navigating your own self-worth, intimate relationships, or just feeling burnout. We've all been there. At any rate, you too deserve a place to feel vulnerable and disentangle problems.
My office complex is secluded, private, and shared by a variety of professional services outside the field of psychotherapy. However, I also offer in-office sessions (meaning your office if you have one) with no additional commute fee—so you’ll never run into familiar faces...except mine.