Anxiety
Many of my clients are seeking strategies to reduce anxiety and stress. I offer evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies that help change patterns and bring greater clarity and ease, e.g. mindfulness, deep breathing, self-compassion, and catching thought distortions. Anxiety can impact work or relationships and involve significant distress. I am dedicated to helping you to take charge of it and to feel better. Sessions provide support to process emotions and find real-life solutions. I often work with clients struggling with social anxiety, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety.
I may recommend a medication evaluation with a psychiatrist for possible combined treatment for anxiety, ADHD or depression.
ADHD
Clients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to have variable attention in the present moment. With a natural curiosity and sensitivity comes a tendency toward overstimulation. I provide a framework to understand the dysregulation that accompanies ADHD, along with your ADHD strengths, especially creativity, nonconformity or originality, and empathy. We work together on increasing your ability to live in a middle ground, pause between an impulse and an action, and plan into the future. Other areas I address are reducing procrastination and keeping bigger goals and values front and center.
Depression
I treat a wide range of depressive symptoms with integrative therapy or scientifically-validated Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for depression. Down or low mood may show up as a loss of interest in things you used to enjoy. Depression has a genetic and biological component and is associated with stressful life events. Even when events or circumstances "explain a lot," relief is available. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) focuses on understanding the context for your feelings and needs and considering options in a given situation. Both IPT and cognitive-behavioral strategies help to interrupt self-reproach and guide clients toward making changes, no matter how small. It's never too late to experience greater ease and vitality.
Some of the associated problems I work with include difficulty making decisions, oppressive conditions, and social isolation.
Relationships
The therapy that I provide hones in on communication with significant people in your life, and the link between any conflicts and your mood. I offer the tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) which involve naming one's needs with compassion and expanding on strategies to meet them. New communication is often tried between sessions and then reviewed together. It's gratifying to help my clients discover greater authenticity and mutuality in their relationships. Treatment guides you to clarify expectations and reflect on your objectives in a particular conversation, e.g. with your boss. If interested, you may choose to explore the influence of your early relationships and process aspects that would benefit from healing attention and insight.
Some of the common issues I work with include young adults' conflicts with a parent or significant other, recurring patterns in friendships or dating, managing emotions during a relationship conflict, trouble setting boundaries or saying no.
Grief & Loss
Grief after someone close has died unfolds in unique ways, often involving waves of intense sadness. If you feel stuck or depressed, you may be struggling with common grief stumbling blocks, such as guilt or disbelief. Naming strong feelings is often therapeutic, as is reviewing the course of your relationship. If the death of a loved one was sudden or involved the effects of a devastating illness, grief can have elements of reaction to a trauma. A common sign of traumatic or complicated grief is avoidance of certain reminders of the loved one. The therapy that I provide helps clients to recognize where grieving may have stalled and find ways to move through it. This counseling focuses on your aspirations at the same time, in order to restore balance with new possibilities for joy or purpose.
Life Transitions
Do you have a sense of being between two or more different identities or realities? I work experientially with many clients in their 20's and 30's dealing with personal or career development issues. Even a positive change can be stressful. Societal factors, like climate change, violence, and world events also increasingly impact mental health. Signs of stress may be numbness, feelings of alienation or overwhelm. I facilitate processing the grief, stress or anger that may be tied to a recent event, a significant change, or an insidious loss of expectations, and work with you on discovering opportunities-- to hold onto a sense of meaning and adapt to your current situation.
Some of the issues I work with include medical/graduate school or a job change, transition to parenthood- perinatal stress, having a first or second child, living apart from family or place of origin.
Self-Criticism & Self-Esteem
We can all have self-doubt or lack confidence sometimes. If you're feeling like this regularly or all the time, therapy can help to understand the underlying factors that influence self-esteem and to develop more balanced beliefs about yourself. Mindfulness practices include nonjudgmental awareness and self-talk that is gentle. Many of my clients discern ways to live more congruently with their values or build new skills, which contribute to self-esteem. Related issues I often work with include self-doubt and mistrust in your inner guidance, shame, feelings of inadequacy or impostor syndrome.
Contact
Office Location
160 East 89th Street
Suite #1B
New York, NY 10128