Living room scene with a beige armchair, a brown pillow, a cream blanket, a wooden table with a notebook, pen, mug, and candle, a potted plant, candles on a side table, and framed wall art with inspirational text. Warm lighting creates a cozy atmosphere.

You may already know why you respond the way you do.

You may understand your childhood, recognize your relationship patterns, know your triggers, and even be able to name the beliefs you carry because of what you've experienced.

And still, in the moment, something takes over.

You shut down. You become anxious. You overthink. You accommodate. You disconnect. You take care of everyone else. You react in ways you promised yourself you wouldn't.

A cozy scene with lit candles, a closed book with a pen on top, a blanket, and decorative items including a large vase and small flowers on a wooden surface.

This doesn't mean you haven't done enough work.

It means that some of what shapes us lives deeper than conscious understanding.

My approach to therapy is designed to meet you there.

Related reading: I Understand Myself. Why Doesn't That Always Change How I Feel?

What Does Depth-Oriented Therapy Mean?

Depth-oriented therapy is less about applying a technique to a problem and more about becoming curious about the whole person experiencing it.

Anxiety, grief, relationship difficulties, overwhelm, or a period of transition may be what brings you to therapy. Our work can also explore what lies beneath those experiences: your history, relationships, internal parts, patterns of protection, sense of identity, and the deeper questions emerging in your life.

For women who already have a great deal of self-awareness, therapy can become a place to move beyond intellectual understanding and into a more lived, embodied experience of change.

How Is Depth-Oriented Therapy Different?

Many forms of therapy can help you develop coping strategies, change unhelpful thoughts, or respond differently to difficult situations. These tools can be valuable, and there are times when symptom relief is exactly what is needed.

Depth-oriented therapy also asks us to look underneath the symptom.

Rather than seeing anxiety, overwhelm, perfectionism, relationship difficulties, or emotional disconnection only as problems to solve, we become curious about how they developed, what continues to activate them, and what they may be expressing about your inner life.

This means we may work with what is happening now while also exploring earlier experiences, relationship patterns, internal conflicts, protective strategies, emotions, the body, and the meanings you have made from what you have lived through.

The goal is not endless exploration of the past.

It is greater freedom in the present.

So.. We Begin With Curiosity…

A woman sitting on a rock, watching a sunset over rolling hills and mountains.

I don't see symptoms simply as problems to eliminate.

Anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional withdrawal, hyper-independence, overfunctioning, or the need to stay in control often developed for a reason.

At some point, they may have helped you feel safe, connected, accepted, or able to manage experiences that felt overwhelming.

Rather than asking only:

How do we make this stop?

I am often interested in another question:

What is this trying to protect?

That shift, from judgment to curiosity, can change the way we relate to ourselves.

Instead of fighting the parts of you that seem anxious, angry, avoidant, needy, controlling, or afraid, we begin to understand them.

And when something no longer has to work so hard to protect you, change becomes possible.

Therapy That Works on More Than One Level

Healing doesn't always happen through talking alone.

Depending on what brings you to therapy and what feels right for you, our work may move between several layers of experience.

Sunset over wildflowers in a field, with white flowers and tall grass.

Understanding Your Story

We explore the relationships, experiences, family dynamics, beliefs, and patterns that have shaped the way you experience yourself and others.

Understanding matters.

But it is often the beginning of the work rather than the end.

Sunlight filtering through trees onto a forest trail with rocks and bushes.

Healing What the Past Still Holds

Sometimes the past isn't simply something we remember.

Its imprint can continue to appear in the present — in relationships, emotional reactions, beliefs about ourselves, or the body's response to situations that feel familiar.

When appropriate, I incorporate trauma-focused approaches such as EMDR and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) to help process experiences that may not have fully resolved through insight or conversation alone.

We don't need to force our way into painful experiences.

Trauma work should happen with care, preparation, and respect for your pace.

Close-up of green leaves on a branch with sunlight shining through in a forest

Working With the Parts of You

Through an Internal Family Systems-informed perspective, we may become curious about the different parts of you that appear in particular situations.

The part that takes care of everyone.

The part that worries.

The part that needs to get everything right.

The part that wants to disappear.

The part that is angry.

The part that learned not to need anyone.

Instead of trying to get rid of these parts, we explore what they have been carrying and what they may still believe they need to protect you from.

Stacked stones on a rock by water during sunset with mountain in background

Learning to Stay Present With Yourself

Mindfulness is woven throughout much of my work, but not as another thing you need to become "good at."

At its simplest, mindfulness is learning to notice what is happening within you without immediately judging it, fixing it, or running from it.

Over time, this can create something incredibly important:

space between what you feel and what you do next.

That space gives you more choice.

The Body Is Part of the Conversation

Our experiences aren't stored only as stories.

Sometimes we know we're safe and our body remains tense.

We know a relationship is different and still brace for rejection.

We know we don't have to please everyone and still feel uncomfortable saying no.

This is why I pay attention not only to what you think, but also to what you notice emotionally and physically.

Breath, sensation, tension, emotion, impulses, and nervous-system responses can all offer information about what is happening beneath the surface.

A woman with red hair wearing a cream-colored blouse, placing her right hand on her chest with her fingers spread out, showing a simple gold ring on her finger, in front of a window with sunlight and greenery outside.

This doesn't mean every sensation needs to be analyzed or that therapy requires you to focus on your body. It means we recognize that emotional experience can show up in more than thoughts alone.

For example, we might notice what happens inside when you imagine setting a boundary, disappointing someone, asking for what you need, receiving care, or allowing yourself to slow down.

These moments can help us understand patterns that are difficult to reach through thinking alone — and gradually create opportunities to experience and respond to them differently.

You don't need to be particularly connected to your body or experienced with mindfulness to do this work.

We begin wherever you are.

And Sometimes Healing Opens a Larger Question

There is often a point in therapy when something interesting happens.

The original symptoms may become quieter. You understand yourself differently. Old patterns begin to loosen.

And another question emerges:

If I am no longer organizing my life around survival, fear, obligation, or who I thought I needed to be but how do I actually want to live?

Person sitting on a rock watching the sunset over mountains and valleys.

This is where my work often expands beyond symptom relief into questions of identity, meaning, purpose, values, and connection.

For many women, these questions become especially alive during periods of transition.

Midlife, perimenopause, changing relationships, children growing up, shifts in career or family roles, or simply realizing that the life that once fit no longer feels quite the same can bring unexpected anxiety, grief, restlessness, or disconnection.

These experiences can also become an invitation to listen more deeply to what is changing within you and to ask

not only “What is happening to me?” but “Who am I becoming now?”

I simply believe that psychological healing can sometimes open the door to

a deeper relationship with yourself and with the life you want to create.

An Integrative Approach

There is no single modality that can capture the complexity of a human being.

I draw from several therapeutic approaches, choosing what is most appropriate for the person in front of me rather than asking you to fit into a particular method. These approaches give us different ways of understanding and working with your experience, but the modality is never the goal.

You are at the center of the work.

Waning crescent moon.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS helps us understand the different parts of ourselves — including those that protect, worry, overfunction, withdraw, or carry old wounds. Rather than trying to eliminate these parts, we approach them with curiosity and compassion, creating space for greater understanding and inner connection.

Third quarter moon.

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR can help process experiences that continue to feel unresolved or remain emotionally activating in the present. It allows us to work beyond insight alone, helping painful experiences become less powerful in shaping how you feel and respond today.

Half moon.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT / Tapping)

EFT combines focused attention with gentle tapping on acupressure points. It can be incorporated into therapy to support emotional regulation and help us work with distressing emotions, beliefs, and experiences.

Half moon.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Mindfulness is woven throughout much of my work as a way of becoming more aware of thoughts, emotions, sensations, and patterns without immediately judging or reacting to them. Over time, this awareness can create more space for choice and a different relationship with ourselves.

First quarter moon.

Attachment & Family Systems

These perspectives help us understand how early relationships, family dynamics, and experiences of connection continue to influence how we relate to ourselves and others. Recognizing these patterns can open the possibility of creating new ways of relating.

Waxing crescent moon.

Energy Psychology & Transpersonal Psychotherapy

For clients who are interested, these approaches can make room for dimensions of experience that may extend beyond traditional talk therapy including the mind-body connection, intuition, spirituality, meaning, and purpose.

The modality is never the goal.

The goal is helping you understand yourself more deeply, heal what continues to shape your present, and experience greater freedom to live as yourself.

What Might a Session Look Like?

There is no predetermined formula for our sessions.

We usually begin with what feels most present for you: something that happened during the week, an emotion you can't quite shake, a relationship interaction, a recurring thought or pattern, a memory, a physical response, or simply the sense that something feels different.

Sometimes we talk and reflect.

Sometimes I may invite you to slow down and notice what is happening underneath the story: an emotion, a belief, a protective part of you, or something you notice in your body.

A ceramic mug filled with coffee, a lit candle in a brown glass holder, an open notebook with cursive writing, and a black pen on a wooden table.

At other times, we may work more intentionally with a particular experience using EMDR, EFT, mindfulness, or another approach when it feels clinically appropriate and you are comfortable doing so.

You will not be expected to arrive knowing what you need to work on.

Part of therapy is learning to listen more closely to what is asking for your attention.

Frequently Asked Questions About My Approach

We Don't Have to Know Exactly Where We're Going Before We Begin.

Therapy is rarely a straight line.

Sometimes we begin with anxiety and discover grief underneath it.

We begin with a relationship and find an old wound asking for attention.

We begin with burnout and discover that you have spent much of your life believing your worth depends on what you can do for everyone else.

And sometimes we begin because you simply know:

Something in my life needs to change.

We can begin there.