In my current practice, I take a trauma-informed, humanistic and experiential approach when assessing and treating individuals, adolescents, couples, and families. Humanistic and experiential models emphasize our inherent goodness and desire to be the best that we can be. They also hold a strong belief in our capacity for change. What might speak to me the most about these approaches is their emphasis on using our genuine selves to create relationships; it is through this authentic connection that we begin to feel safe enough to explore ourselves more deeply and, thus, help us connect to all aspects of our identities. Understanding ourselves more fully cultivates congruence between our internal and external worlds, creating more inner peace and ease in our interpersonal relationships. These kinds of shifts can create profound changes in our lives.

I also take a systemic perspective, therefore, I tend toward exploring families-of-origin, social locations, cultural backgrounds, and other systems that have affected your life experience. I have found that gaining insight into the impacts of those systems can be incredibly empowering. Specifically when it comes to family influences, exploration of our early relationships can help us better understand ourselves and how we relate to others in present day. I use attachment theory to help put language to some of the coping mechanisms and adaptive behaviors we form as children that may no longer be serving us. I also draw from experiential tenets in that I believe that allowing ourselves to fully experience and express our emotions leads us to what we truly need from both ourselves and others. I find that in couples work, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) provides a nice framework for exploring our attachment needs and communicating them more effectively with our partners. While I have a more natural inclination toward certain modalities over others, my theoretical approach is determined solely by the needs of each individual (or couple/family) client.