What generally brings one into therapy may be multifaceted, but generally includes a feeling of disturbance in some part of life and a hope to receive help in getting through. My approach seeks to reduce disturbance and promote healing by endeavoring to understand the meaning and needs underneath the symptoms and how, through a collaborative effort, symptoms and difficulties can be used to lead one to experience more integration, wholeness, and contentment. This approach can help one deal with issues of the here and now, while also encouraging one to live a life that more fully expresses who they are. My specialties are in working with trauma and addiction, both of which, I believe, are experienced by everyone. My philosophy is that behaviors and emotions are here to give us a doorway into the psyche that help one navigate through the defenses to the wound or need that lies beneath. I am a depth psychologist with a systems perspective and relational way of being. Symptoms are just information that can be viewed in many ways and when understood with awareness, compassion, and integration one may experience more fullness, contentment, and connection with self and others. The therapeutic modalities that I most often use are depth psychology, self-psychology, internal family systems, and relational therapy. I am also EMDR certified.