Therapy & Evaluation Areas of Specialty
My clinical training and experiences have allowed me to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds struggling with a wide variety of personal issues. That said, while I maintain professional humility and consider myself a lifelong learner, past research, clinical, and personal experiences have allowed me to develop particular expertise in the following areas:
Racial, Sexual, & Gender Identity
I have personal and professional experience with issues of identity development, belonging, immigration, racism, sexism, heterosexism, gender identity & expression, and challenges that may arise in connection to these. While your current struggles may not be clearly related to these issues, it is important to consider the impact they may have on your life, if any. Speaking to someone who is well-versed in these areas can help you get a better understanding of how they may have influenced your past life experiences and thus played a role in your mental health.
Major Life Transitions
Across different clinical settings, I have helped individuals struggling with changes to their mood, functioning, character, and overall outlook on life after experiencing a major life change. Major life changes can include, but are not limited to: breakups, new medical diagnoses, gender expansion or transition, immigration, anticipated or sudden death of loved ones, or shifts in school, work, and career. Depending on the nature and circumstances surrounding a major life transition, we may experience increased anxiety, sadness, sleep disturbance, changes to our interpersonal patterns, or general manner of being. Because life changes disrupt the equilibrium that once was, many of us can struggle to cope or adjust. Therapy can help you gain clarity and a better appreciation of how the changes you’ve experienced have impacted you, and how to move forward with your life.
Interpersonal Issues
At our core, we are all profoundly social in nature. Our relationships are the foundation upon which we develop a sense of who we are, our self worth, and how to behave in relation to other people. Depending on our lived experiences, past relationships may have created problematic dynamics that affect how we relate to others presently. These past relationships include those we have developed with our primary caregivers, friends, lovers, relatives, colleagues, or other peers. I have a special interest in helping people better understand how relationships throughout their lives have helped shape their current patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. While a lot of this work involves exploring past and current relationships to others, therapy is also a space where we can discuss our emerging relationship as well. Such explorations provide us with material to make sense of your relational patterns and how these may be related to your current mood and functioning.
Psychological, Psychoeducational, & Neuropsychological Evaluations
Psychological evaluations usually involve a comprehensive assessment of an individual’s intellectual, cognitive, academic, social, emotional, and other important areas of functioning. I provide evaluations for clarification of psychiatric diagnoses, determination of eligibility for educational accomodations, and identification of specific impairments related to cognitive (i.e., mental) functioning. Such impairments can involve difficulty with language/speech, reasoning or thinking ability, memory, attention, or other mental functions. Where such impairments may have been caused by a major accident, traumatic injury, health conditions, or medical treatments, neuropsychological testing can be especially useful in understanding the specific type, degree, and extent of acquired impairment.
I thoroughly enjoy testing children and adolescents ages 6 through 18 for the purpose of helping them and their families better understand their unique learning/developmental needs so that they can grown and learn according to their potential. For adults of all ages, I provide evaluations to facilitate continued access to specialized services and/or clarify diagnoses and recommendations for treatment.
