How I work

The relationship does the work. The tools serve it.

Therapy isn't one-size-fits-all. Neither are people.

I don't believe there's a single approach that works for everyone. Some people need space to talk and understand their feelings. Others benefit from practical strategies, a different perspective, or a structured way of working through difficult experiences.

We'll explore what feels helpful for you, drawing on different therapeutic approaches when appropriate. The methods matter, but so does the relationship we build. I want our work to feel collaborative, honest, and comfortable enough for you to explore things that may be difficult to discuss elsewhere.

In practice

How we'll work together.

01

First, I listen.

We take time to understand your experiences and what matters to you.
02

Then, we explore together.

We look at patterns, feelings, relationships, and possibilities for change.
03

We find what helps.

Depending on your needs, that might involve reflection, practical skills, or structured therapeutic techniques.

What you can expect from me

Presence

Full attention, for fifty minutes, from someone who is not managing you, evaluating you, or waiting for their turn to speak.

Genuineness

I am a real person in the room. I will tell you what I notice, including when it is uncomfortable, and I will not hide behind a technique.

Unconditional positive regard

You do not have to perform, edit or justify yourself here. Nothing you bring will change how I regard you.

Curiosity

Behavior that looks irrational usually makes sense once you understand what it is protecting, so we look for that sense rather than for fault.

Collaboration

You are the expert on your life. I bring clinical training, structure and an outside perspective. We decide the direction together.

Clinical care

Careful assessment, attention to risk, clear boundaries, and regular qualified supervision. Warmth and rigor go together.

Approaches

The approaches I draw from

Methods are chosen with you and tailored to you. Not every client works with every method, and no method guarantees a particular outcome.

Person-centered therapy

The foundation: empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. This is the stance I hold whatever else we are doing.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, for traumatic or distressing experiences or memories that still intrude on the present. Used where it is clinically appropriate, with preparation, your agreement, and within the scope of my training and current supervision. My training in EMDR was performed by an EMDRIA approved EMDR training provider.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Structured work on the thinking and behavior that maintain anxiety, avoidance, rumination and perfectionistic standards.

Solution-focused therapy

Useful for focused, time-limited work: what is already working, what has worked in the past, what you want instead, and the smallest next step toward it.

Motivational interviewing

For ambivalence, the place where you want two incompatible things and have been stuck between them for a while.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Direct work on the rigid demands underneath distress, the musts and shoulds you hold yourself and other people to. Particularly useful for perfectionism, self-criticism and the belief that anything less than excellent is failure.

Family Systems Therapy

Looking at a person in the context of the system they belong to: roles, alliances, unspoken rules and inherited patterns.

Trauma-informed care

This is a framework rather than a technique: pacing, choice, transparency and safety, whatever we are working on.

How the work usually proceeds

This is a rough shape rather than a protocol. In practice these phases overlap, and we move between them as your life requires.
Understand: Patterns, not symptoms. History, context, what you have already tried, and what keeps the pattern in place.
Regulate: Steadier ground. Skills for anxiety, rumination and overwhelm, so that the deeper work is possible rather than destabilising.
Strengthen: Relationships. Boundaries, honesty, repair, and asking for things, at home and at work.
Reconnect: Values and meaning. What matters to you now, distinct from what you were taught to want or rewarded for wanting.
Experiment: Deliberate change. Small tests between sessions, reviewed together, adjusted as we learn what actually holds.

Scope of practice

I practice as a New York Mental Health Counselor under a Limited Permit, with qualified supervision. Mental Health Counseling services are provided through Cognizant Psychotherapy. Supervision is a routine part of good clinical care and it ensures that our work benefits from more than one clinical mind.

I do not provide medication management, emergency or crisis services, inpatient care, or court-ordered evaluations. Where you need care beyond my scope, I will say so and help you find it.