Individual and Couples Therapy in Portland, OR
We live in a time of urgency and optimization. We celebrate efficiency, logic, and thinking our way through problems. While this is quite useful in some areas of life, there are two key places it is not: in our relationships with ourselves and our relationships with others.
When we swallow our feelings in the name of logic and reason, they simply make themselves known in other ways — at less convenient times — in the form of panic, despair, irritability, reactivity, chronic pain, nausea, burnout, poor focus, impulsivity, the list goes on. Our bodies are talking to us, and our job is to listen and respond, rather than power through. I can help you learn how.
I believe everything we feel, do, and struggle with makes sense and serves a valuable purpose. And yet, many of us question and blame ourselves when we feel something inconvenient, irrational, or too big, believing that we are being “too sensitive.” If this sounds like you, welcome.
Clients who enjoy working with me have said that I offer a good balance of listening and holding their experience while also challenging and pushing them to think differently about it. I am interactive, relational, and embrace the messiness of therapy (think laughter, swearing, and even crying alongside you at times) and really view our work as a collaboration.
I draw on learning and training from systems theory, parts work, Relational Life Therapy (RLT), Pain Reprocessing Therapy (Certified), mindbody frameworks, critical social theory, and domestic violence prevention and intervention,