My areas of interest and professional strengths lie in the process of developing a regulated therapeutic relational space, understanding and translating early attachment processes to patients' here and now experiences, incorporating the implicit - procedural memory, facial expression, body language, somatic experience - into conscious awareness, understanding self states, brain states, somatic states and structural dissociation, so that the person in front of us can have a better sense of self-understanding, self-cohesion, and a sense of restored safety and trust in their own capacity - a feeling that they "make sense".

My treatment philosophy is influenced by attachment theory (early and ongoing patterns of relational engagement), relational psychoanalysis (how memory shapes what's happening in the here and now), and affect regulation/trauma-dissociation theories (what is the texture of the dysregulation, what are reflexive attempts at self regulation and are these automatic attempts causing further pain or dysregulation?). 

When I explain my approach to clients, I often stress the importance of the therapeutic relationship, the curiosity-rooted focus on the "here and now", the tending to physiological and somatic discomfort, as well as a sense of realistic hope for a greater capacity for inner and relational safety, emotion regulation, self  understanding, and a stronger sense of possibility in relationship with one's self and others.

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As a relational therapist, I weave between these "here and now" interactions and patterns of "self-with-other expectations" that have developed from past relational experiences.  When appropriate, I also work from an intergenerational lens, helping people to locate themselves and their problems in a history greater than themselves.  I'm also interested in the connections between stress, trauma, attachment shock, dissociation and somatic experience, and help clients to better understand and regulate symptomatic sensations and sequences through "deep brain reorienting", hypnosis, parts/states work, mindfulness, externalizing and reframing.  I have found that when people can understand their experiences, they feel a greater sense of security, agency and hope for possibilities.