Services
About My Clients
How does it feel to live in your body? Does the idea of feeling at home, or even safe, inside your own skin feel out of reach? Maybe you find yourself staking your identity or self worth on the goals you hope to meet. You might catch yourself hoping that your happiness or sense of self lies just beyond the next diet, the next marathon, the next relationship. The guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety you may be experiencing has nothing to do with a lack of willpower. You have not failed.
My Background and Approach
We receive so many external messages about food, movement, and our bodies. As a licensed mental health counselor and registered dance/movement therapist, my goal is to help my client's re-discover their own body's non-verbal language, and the collective wisdom that all bodies have access to. Oftentimes, the very parts of ourselves we have come to feel ashamed of are the parts that served to keep us safe or protected at some point in our lives. I take care as a therapist to welcome these parts into the room; they are so often the most resilient, resourceful pieces of ourselves. I see clients as the experts of their own bodies and experiences. My approach to therapy is highly collaborative, as I take a focus on building a safe space and relationship that invites in my client’s personal narratives. I attempt to meet my clients wherever they may be on their journey and join them in deepening our collective understanding of their story.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I believe our bodies' have an innate understanding of how to nourish and care for themselves. I also believe that the various forms of marginalization, oppression, and stigma that exist in our world may require us to dissociate from our bodies, in order to protect ourselves. The ways in which we have learned to keep ourselves safe can often become pathologized through our mental health care system when we label our learned patterns as 'disordered behaviors'. As a therapist who occupies several intersections of privilege, I am committed to recognizing how my own identities show up both in, and outside of, the therapy room. I also feel committed to naming and challenging all the 'shoulds' we internalize about what a healthy body, relationship, or emotional expression looks like.