Transparency about Politics and My Views
In 2025, I believe we are in a time of national crisis, based on how the government is being weaponized against us. I stand against authoritarianism, governmental overreach, and misuse of power. I do not reject anyone for having different political beliefs, though if you become my client, I will hope to explore them with you, to see how you understand the world. I do not require that you agree with me, in order for me to show my dedication to support you in your challenges. I work with many people who see the world quite differently. We are all being harmed by the politics of this era. I am taking action personally and professionally to find new ways of coping, healing, and surviving in the face of so many real threats to our safety, which I can share with you if you are interested in learning more. We can talk about everything together, and I will be a partner with you to help you make sense of a changing and chaotic world.
Why am I saying all of this? Because a lot of therapists don’t. When we get trained as psychotherapists, we’re taught to keep our views to ourselves, to be a “blank slate” and not disclose who we are. We also have an ethical obligation to work with all clients, regardless of whether we believe the same things. I support the latter, and I reject the former.
To be 100% clear: I do not identify as a Democrat, however I have also never voted for a Republican. I reject fascism, and violence, regardless of who instigates it. In my own life, I fight for peace, and I am not passive.
Now is the time to share that we are in this together, as people struggling with the changes around us. This is why I am not bothered by your beliefs being different than mine. These changes impact us all, except the very wealthy. Regular people? We’re hurting, and being hurt by the system. I want you to know where I stand.
OK so… Who do I work with?
I work with individual adults in California, Washington, or Virginia via teletherapy.
Would I be able to help you?
I have supported people like you with issues such as:
- grief and loss, including significant deaths, heartbreak, pet loss
- relationship issues
- major life transitions, such as navigating a breakup, starting a new career, leaving or going back to school
- low mood, low energy, irritability, inability to feel joy, a sense of deadness inside
- anxiousness that can turn into obsessiveness, including rituals to try and feel safe
- dread from the state of the world: political anxiety, economic uncertainty, gun violence, systemic inequality, global warming and climate disasters
- conflict avoidance and difficulty speaking up or getting needs met
- hypersensitivity to rejection and fear of abandonment, including what is sometimes labeled as borderline personality disorder
- co-dependent tendencies
- being an adult child of an alcoholic and the childhood traumas that may have never been healed
- lack of self trust and inability to feel safe
- misophonia, extreme emotional reactions to certain sounds that make it hard to function
Those issues are common to many, many people. I have some niche interests as well, to serve in a more specialized way, where I have sought out specific training and education. These include: Working with DID, plurals or systems, and dissociation; gender identity and individuals who are trans, nonbinary, or exploring; open relationships, poly, BDSM/kink, and non-heteronormative lifestyles. I also have specialized experience being a counselor to other therapists, and to social advocates, organizers, and activists. These niche areas are not related to each other, however I’m listing them out here in case any of these matter to you.
What might we focus on together?
I get it. You just want to feel better.
Experiences of anxiety and depression are incredibly common in our modern world. I would be surprised if you haven’t suffered from these problems. We will look at your symptoms — maybe it’s sleeplessness, or oversleeping; maybe you can’t get motivated to do anything because of how crappy you feel; maybe you are really sensitive and you feel like you overreact, or people tell you that you do; maybe your relationships are suffering.
Here’s some ideas of what our work will look like:
- Identifying root-cause issues
- Being seen and heard
- Untangling emotions and looking at why it REALLY bothers you
- Allowing the emotions to be here without taking us over or running away from them, suppressing them, or using self-harmful behaviors to try and escape them
- Building an ability to tolerate frustration – which can be really difficult for those who have experienced severe traumas
- Centering ourselves in our own experience and separating from other people in a healthy way
- Getting better at responding instead of reacting
- Practicing communicating together so that the conversations that feel so risky have a better chance of success
- Finding meaning after suffering
- Discovering the patterns and realizing how things can be different
What is my philosophy?
I am very interested in identity.
What does that mean?
It means that you are an individual made up of many roles and affiliations based on aspects of who you are, including relationships in your family, the way you experience your gender and how fixed or fluid it is, who you are attracted to, your health status and the spectrum of ability you currently access, your size and how your body takes up space, how attractive the world has decided you are, the financial resources you have available, and the color of your skin and labels of race, the lived experience of your ethnicity and traditions, whether you believe in one God or multiple forms of divinity or none at all, your family’s heritage, your status as an immigrant in terms of how recent or far in the past your family came to the United States, and many more. These aspects may determine whether you feel like you belong, and the times you feel like an outsider.
Everyone experiences life differently based on the groups they feel part of. Identity cannot be categorized into tidy little buckets, so I apologize for the oversimplification, however to offer a sense of my current range: I have had clients who identify as male and female, both cis and trans; as lesbian, bi, queer, and questioning. I have worked with individuals from 17 years old to 70. Married, divorced, widowed. Single by choice. Exploring. Child-free. Co-parenting. Religious. Atheist. Most of my clients so far have been white. If you are a person of color, I would be sensitive to the dynamics of the cross-racial counseling relationship and invite a discussion of what that would be like for you.
What is my style or approach?
My clinical orientation is called psychodynamic, which for me, means that I care a lot about emotions, and tend to use them as a point of inquiry, as a way to understand what’s going on inside. That being said, there are other avenues to explore, too. That’s because many of us are blocked to emotions, especially those with strong masculine qualities. We may investigate the cycles and patterns you’ve been experiencing, or how you “show up” to others, how you impact them and how they influence you.
By its very nature, psychodynamic psychotherapy is depth work. It usually takes time to build trust and safety together, for these larger themes to surface. For most of us, it took many years for these patterns to become entrenched, through the experiences of trauma and disconnection we’ve suffered in the past. It may take some time to un-do them through new ways of thinking, believing, and being. We will look for opportunities to increase your strengths and build your supports, so you can find ways to feel better as soon as is possible. This is the type of work that benefits from meeting regularly, usually once every week (sometimes more often), where change is tracked over time. We will do that together through open discussion of what you want to work on and how.
I might summarize all of this as work that develops new and improved skills for coping with life, that allows a greater sense of self-integration where wholeness and vitality can be experienced, along with the inevitable challenges.
Do you want to find out what might be possible together?
If you’re currently feeling like it might help to talk to someone, to look at what’s really going on in your life, please reach out and we’ll see if this might be a place to begin.
If you’re in crisis, please reach out to your family and friends, they are your support system. If you need medical attention or you feel like you will hurt yourself or someone else, go to your nearest emergency room or call 911. You can also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line for immediate support from peer counselors. Many communities have Mobile Crisis Units too. Here is a list of California crisis units organized by county.