I strive to provide culturally-affirming counseling and welcome clients from all walks of life – regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, affectional orientation, religion, physical ability, and body size.
Group Counseling
I lead interpersonal process groups for adults interested in exploring who they are in relationship to others, experimenting with new ways of engaging that are both authentic and relationally healing, and strengthening their felt sense of connection and belonging.
Though process groups rely on a foundation of mutual support, process groups are distinct from support groups in that each session is unstructured and without a focus on any particular topic. Instead, the primary focus is on attending to and reflecting upon the interactions and relationships between group members.
In unstructured process groups, members tend to interact in ways that resemble their interpersonal life outside of the group. Members then have a unique opportunity within the group to identify, understand, and change their interpersonal patterns – and ultimately incorporate these changes into their everyday life. Process groups also present opportunities for vicarious learning as members see aspects of themselves in others.
These learnings are most possible in a group atmosphere of safety and respect, bounded by mutual agreements. See this infographic for my suggestions for getting the most of an interpersonal process group. You can also check out the interviews I conducted with Carlos Canales and Ali Kimmell about the unique benefits of group work.
I currently have two online interpersonal process groups. You can view a flier for these groups here. I’m actively recruiting members for the Thursday group.
| Group 1: every other Monday, 6:00-7:30 PM (active group, full) Group 2: every other Thursday, 6:00-7:30 PM (active group, recruiting new members) |
Couples and Relationship Counseling
I help people experience more secure and satisfying connection in diverse types of two-person relationships. I work with monogamous relationships and consensually non-monogamous relationships, sexual and gender minority relationships, asexual and aromantic relationships, intercultural relationships, and more. Here are some of the themes we can explore together:
- Balancing the drive for individuality and the drive for togetherness.
- Studying how you construct your experience in your interactions, including family-of-origin influences; taking responsibility for your own experience and contributions; stepping outside of limiting, self-reinforcing relational dynamics.
- Improving communication and negotiation skills; avoiding projections and distortions; completing interactions in a more satisfying way.
- Rebalancing unconscious power differentials, restoring trust, reestablishing safety.
- Working with nervous system and trauma-related activation; remaining resourced in the face of relational disruptions.
- Promoting resilience in the face of societal stigma and discrimination associated with nontraditional relationships.
- Orienting towards hopefulness and possibility; experiencing the relationship as a source of comfort and security; co-constructing shared purpose, vision, and principles that govern the relationship.
For a free infographic outlining nine essential principles for a secure functioning relationship, subscribe to my e-mail list.
Individual Counseling
I work with adult individuals experiencing a variety of barriers to achieving full agency in their lives: limiting beliefs and behaviors, habituated relational patterns, post-traumatic stress reactions, etc. Here are some of the themes we can explore together:
- Anxiety and fear, or a general sense of being overwhelmed by everyday experiences; a tendency to withdraw; reestablishing safety to more fully engage.
- Difficulty taking in support; an ongoing sense of deprivation or an exaggerated aspiration towards self-reliance; distinguishing between reliable and unreliable support.
- Conflicts between freedom and closeness; difficulty expressing oneself and over-accommodating; re-accessing one’s own preferences, autonomy, and truth.
- Feeling “never quite good enough”; overachieving and overefforting; cultivating self-acceptance and easefulness.
- Post-traumatic stress reactions due to high impact falls or injuries, inescapable attacks, natural disasters, war experiences, and various forms of oppression and marginalization; connecting with one’s own agency, resources, and natural support systems.
- Examining one’s own social power and privilege and use of this power and privilege.