My Background
I earned my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) as part of the first graduating class of a new program run by the Stanford School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, in partnership with what is now known as Palo Alto University. This program emphasizes evidence-based treatment. Research- and science-based therapy has remained an emphasis of my own ever since.
During graduate school, I focused on a (then) new and particularly effective evidence-based treatment called Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
DBT is a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which helps people change their thoughts and behaviors, and mindfulness, which helps people accept things as they are. I found this focus on finding a “middle path”—simultaneously striving for change and accepting ourselves as we are—to be revolutionary both for my patients and in my own life. I am deeply influenced by its ideas that people can learn and practice skills that will help them cope with life stressors in more flexible and effective ways. DBT gives me a solid foundation to teach people everyday skills for regulating painful emotions, tolerating distress, and communicating assertively. I practice radical acceptance of clients and their struggles, and remain focused on mindfulness.
Over the last decade or so, an unprecedented marriage of Western psychology with Eastern mind-training traditions has blossomed. This has led to the development of exciting new psychotherapies, such as Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). Concepts such as mindfulness, acceptance, and compassion are becoming more central to scientific research and to a modern understanding of where healing and wellness are based. My own journey with mindfulness has followed a similar path; meditation, yoga, community, and compassion for myself and others are the core of my own emotional health and wellbeing. Helping clients learn mindfulness, connect with their common humanity, and learn to respond to themselves and others compassionately has become the focus of my work in recent years, and I now specialize in CFT.
Also paralleling aspects of my personal journey, I specialize in helping people cope with the stresses and losses associated with infertility and the complexities of creating a family. This can be an extremely challenging experience fraught with complex decision-making, feelings of isolation and grief, and calling for super-charged self-care, mindfulness, and compassion.