Currently accepting new psychotherapy clients via telehealth
About Me
I am a California state Licensed Clinical Psychologist based in Oakland, CA. Currently, I am providing individual psychotherapy to California residents via telehealth. I earned my doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium in Palo Alto, California. I completed my pre-doctoral, health service psychology internship through the San José State University Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) department. During my post-doctoral training year, I joined Core Insights Psychological Group, Inc., based in Oakland, California. In addition to my private practice, I continue working within Core Insights' group practice as a Clinical Supervisor and psychotherapist, serving the community mental health needs of MediCal-insured adults and UC Berkeley students. I have both trained and worked in a variety of settings with the aim of understanding individuals and families through the different communities and systems that they inhabit, including: university college counseling centers, hospitals, academic medical centers, community mental health centers, middle and high schools, outpatient medical clinics, and now, a private-practice setting. I have experience working with clients across the lifespan, from birth to geriatric populations, treating a range of presenting concerns, including: complex trauma, interpersonal difficulties, anxiety, panic, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, body-focused repetitive behaviors, disordered eating, gender transition and exploration, minority stress, and family conflict. While I consider myself to be a general practitioner, I hold specialty interests in working with identity development in adolescents and young adults and promoting receptive environments for this population within our community.
I am a general practitioner providing psychotherapy to individuals and families across the lifespan, with the following specialities:
Depression
Depression is often characterized by feelings of sadness and hopelessness. It can lead to decreased interest in activities and maintain a felt sense of stuckness and difficulty completing tasks of daily living. Depression also impacts our ability to sustain relationships and is implicated in other emotional, mental, and physical health processes. It can feel like a brick wall, a deep hole or a tether to the past. In treatment together, we will integrate behavioral strategies, generate awareness and insight into thinking and feeling patterns, cultivate self-compassion, and examine significant events and relationships that inform and maintain the depressive cycle.
Adolescent and Young Adult Populations
This stage of development is often portrayed as the time to create lifelong bonds, build vibrant memories, and find your place in the world. In reality, it is characterized by rapid physical and emotional change, and often pressure to perform at high levels, differentiation from the family system, and experimentation with expression, identity, and risky behaviors. I have received specialty training working with Transitional Aged Youth (TAY), which includes adolescents and adults ages 16-24. In treatment, this provides a lens into your development, context for the systems you inhabit, and the various social pressures at play. Through my integrative approach, we can foster an affirming space, target presenting concerns, and connect you to your own wants, needs, and boundaries.
Anxiety
Anxiety often manifests through felt worry or tension, can be characterized by intrusive thoughts, rumination or panic, and is frequently accompanied by physiological distress like increased heart rate, sweating, dizziness or nausea. In an effort to keep symptoms at bay, those suffering from anxiety will often avoid associated triggers, including social situations and high-pressured environments. In treatment together, we would identify and target the distressing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, create coping strategies to manage anxiety-related symptoms as they arise, and gently explore the avoidance patterns that are aiding in anxiety maintenance.
Relationships
Meaningful, healthy relationships with family, peers, and romantic partners allow our minds and bodies to thrive. When our relationships become conflictual, strained or distant, it can leave us feeling a host of uncomfortable emotions, surface old insecurities, and even impact our physical health. Through my integrative framework of psychodynamic, relational, and attachment-based strategies, we can cultivate awareness around how you were conditioned to relate to others. In turn, we can more clearly identify current interpersonal functioning patterns, and work toward developing healthy relationships.
Trauma
Trauma-related symptoms and PTSD can be triggered by a range of experiences, including some that aren't always validated by society, like witnessing a traumatic event happen to another person or symptoms surfacing years after the incident occurred. We will start by establishing a sense of trust and safety within the therapeutic space and meeting you where you are in the trauma healing process. Together, we will foster an understanding of how the trauma is impacting overall functioning, and how it informs perceived safety within your environment and relationships. Additionally, narrative therapy, inner-child work, and self-compassion techniques can be used when clinically indicated.
Culturally-Informed Care
When building our therapeutic relationship, I like to ask about the cultural framework within which you were raised, and how you have integrated these elements and/or created your own cultural traditions, values, and identities for yourself. I strive to approach our work together with a sense of humility, openness, and willingness to understand your own unique cultural intersectionalities. When clinically indicated, through both a feminist and relational approach, we can focus on the social systems and forces contributing to minority stress, and in turn, other mental health challenges.