Treatment information

While mental health issues, like depression, anxiety, and trauma, and substance use issues can occur independently from one another, many people experience the issues in a co-occurring manner. My training and experience equipped me to work with individuals dealing with these often complex issues.

Our society, including healthcare systems, stigmatizes individuals living with mental health, addiction, and other substance use or compulsive behaviors. I enjoy working with clients to create a safe place to understand their symptoms and behaviors and begin to find their own path to healing. I work with the principles of harm reduction which means I don't start with clients with assumptions about their relationship to substances or their mental health needs, and I don't require abstinence from substances as a goal for therapy.

For mental health issues, I work with clients to monitor their symptoms to gain insight into factors that impact their symptoms and work collaboratively to identify skills to manage these symptoms. 

Some people with mental health concerns benefit from a psychiatric consult to see if medication could be helpful. I am happy to discuss referrals for this service if you are interested. Since I do not provide crisis services, individuals with severe or persistent suicidal thinking or self-harm are encouraged to seek an evaluation through Atrium or Novant's Behavioral Health Services.

Increased visibility of LGBTQ+ identifying individuals in society along with access to information about queer people has led to greater acceptance in our society. That said, homophobia, biphobia, and especially transphobia along with fear and hatred of other queer-identifying people remains a reality of the queer experience. The effects of discrimination and bias lead to trauma, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, isolation, and other negative health outcomes. LGBTQ+ people who also deal with racism, sexism, religious persecution, and/or poverty are even more vulnerable to these negative outcomes.

While there is not one treatment plan that fits for all, my work with these populations often involves untangling harmful messages that have been passed down and internalized from other individuals and institutions and working toward self-compassion and self-acceptance.

With trans and gender nonconforming clients, I meet them where they are in their process of change and aim to provide a safe place to explore gender identity and expression and to find ways to alleviate dysphoria. For those who desire, I provide evaluations and necessary documentation for gender-affirming medical care.

The core of my approach is informed by Person-Centered Therapy. In short, that means I believe active listening and empathy are the most healing responses I can offer a client. It is important to me that you walk away from every session feeling seen and heard. In addition, I have extensive training in other theoretical approaches. Some clients benefit from Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, or ACT, which invites you to connect with your values and move toward them by learning to apply mindfulness and acceptance to difficult thoughts, feelings, memories, or urges. It is important to me that you walk away from every session having taken a moment to pause and really notice the present moment rather than feeling stuck in the regret of the past, the fear of the future, or the judgment of the mind. I am trained in Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy which supports individuals with substance use and other behavioral compulsions in learning more about the meanings of their substance use behavior, navigate ambivalence, and decide if they want to set goals for behavior change. I enjoy working using Experiential Therapy with clients. I find that clients benefit from getting out of their thinking brain, and find safe ways to recreate and work on their challenges in the therapy session. It is important to me that you walk away from every session having practiced being vulnerable and taken a risk that moves you toward your goals. I use Motivational Interviewing simply because I believe that you know what's best for you, and my role is to guide you in exploring all sides openly, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills to help clients find healthy and effective ways to cope. My values guide me to offer my best efforts to deliver these techniques and therapies with warmth, openness, and compassion. Finally, I have training in Cognitive Processing Therapy, which is an evidence-based structured therapeutic approach for treating PTSD and other types of trauma, and I work with Internal Family Systems Therapy which helps the client learn to balance their own internal system of parts.