You deserve to feel seen, heard, and accepted

Are you tired of feeling like no matter what you do or say, something about you is wrong?

Are the people who are supposed to love and support you the most now becoming more fed up or frustrated with you? 

Do you wish you could shake the cycle of dark days, worries about making the wrong decision, or feeling like you’re not living up to your full potential?

You’ve come to the right place.

Whether you’ve tried therapy before but didn’t get the result you wanted, or it’s your first time and you don’t know what to expect, therapy with me might be different than what you imagined.

My approach is: 

  • Relational: meaning we’re working in tandem to undo your problems and aloneness, and building a connection that models what healthy, secure attachment feels like. 

  • Experiential: meaning change happens through how we process and explore emotions, memories, and insights in the moment, leading to new pathways of experience being created. 

  • Somatic: meaning you’ll build your mind-body connection to feel and sense your way through the process rather than intellectualizing it, building bodily resources, and freeing stored traumas.

Hi, I’m Heather

My clients describe me as:

  • easy to talk to

  • good at breaking up the tough stuff with moments of humor

  • compassionate, direct, and honest

  • someone they feel safe saying absolutely anything to, because they know there’s no judgment

While I identify as a white, cis-gendered, hetero, neurodivergent female, I aim to create a safe and welcoming space for all. If you’re worried I might not get some aspect of you or your identity, let’s talk about it. I want to understand and for you to feel understood.

Why I do this work …

What drives me in this work is a deep desire to help those who feel alone, misunderstood, lost, neglected, or unloved because that’s how I felt for much of my childhood.

All I wanted was someone who would connect with, listen to, and understand me. Instead, I received messages to shrink myself down, put others needs before my own, and suffer in silence.

If you’ve felt something similar I’m here to offer a lifeline out of the well of isolation. I’ll walk with you through the depths of your pain, and help you open to more of the positive to balance out the scales.

My goal is to help you feel less alone no matter what the experience, so you can build a life with more joy, spaciousness, and unconditional love.

Everyone I’ve worked with, from lifers in prison to lawyers and business leaders, find themselves trapped in some sort of mental or emotional prison, unable to get out. Through our work, they’ve gained a sense of inner peace, clarity of thought, deeper relationships, and a richer life.

As one of my favorite teachers says, “There is no greater work than the work of self-love because that lies at the heart of our liberation…” ~ Lama Rod Owens

I believe therapy to be one of the greatest acts of self-love.

And I’d love to help you, too!

What therapy with me looks like…

  • We’ll start more goal-oriented and practical by addressing the issues and symptoms that brought you in and building the skills needed to start feeling relief.

  • Most of the time, we’ll process moment-to-moment in the present experience, building a stronger mind-body connection and practicing what “feeling your feelings” actually means.

  • As needed, we’ll go into your past, addressing any unhelpful beliefs or patterns that need to be processed in new ways to bring healing.

  • Along the way, you’ll build a greater capacity for more pleasurable emotions and experiences and practice sitting with the discomfort of unpleasant emotions, undoing the fear of the unknown.

  • This combination of insight-oriented (appealing to your intellectual side) and somatic, experiential work (addressing your feeling side) creates a depth and richness that goes beyond traditional “talk therapy.”

What you’ll get from our work…

  • Techniques to help you respond differently in the moment so that impulsivity, reactivity, or the anxious, depressed, or traumatized mind doesn’t run the show. 

  • Space to explore and practice new ways of thinking, communicating, and behaving that will boost your self-esteem, confidence, and enjoyment in life.

  • Experience in a safe, nurturing, supportive relationship that can act as both a template for others and a practice ground to try out your new skills.

  • New perspectives and understanding of yourself, that can lead to more spaciousness, ease, and security in day-to-day life.

Ways I can help

“Sounds good doc, but I have a few questions…” 

(Great, I love questions! Let’s see if this answers some)

  • That varies for each person. Most people come with a specific focus or goal in mind, and as they begin to make progress and feel relief, it can go one of a few ways:

    • Some decide to take what they’ve learned and graduate, perhaps returning later.

    • Others decide to dig into deeper issues and continue the work, like peeling back layers of an onion.

    Some stay for months, others years, I’m here for it all.

  • Great question! Some clues that therapy is helping are:

    • Being able to see from multiple perspectives, and knowing that multiple truths can exist at one time. We call this “both/and” thinking i.e., it’s possible to be capable & lost, vulnerable & powerful, kind & set boundaries.

    • Feeling more in control of your emotions & reactions. Learning to ride the ebb and flow of emotions like a surfer on a wave, instead of pretending the water doesn’t exist or getting knocked out by the crash (or at least able to get back up again when you get knocked down with more ease and compassion).

    • More flexibility in your thoughts, actions, and behaviors, rather than living in the rigid land of black & white or all-or-nothing. Essentially, more comfortable with the grey area and messy middle.

    • Being more comfortable with uncertainty and the present moment. Allowing yourself more time to slow down and “just be” rather than always focused on doing and “what’s next?”

  • I’m glad you asked because, it depends.

    1. Therapy sometimes results in feeling worse before you start feeling better. We’re exploring some painful places that may have been locked down for a while. Feeling that pain or discomfort sucks, I get it. This is where trusting the process is key.

      My goal is to help you feel the edges of discomfort, not fall into the depths. And provide tools upfront to make it more manageable and less overwhelming as we go. This is what leads to the deep, long-lasting change people desire. Know that I’m right there with you.

    2. If, for whatever reason, after trying this for a while it really feels like something isn’t working or we’re not the best match, let’s talk about it. We might need to switch up our approach, or you might be better served by someone else, and I’m happy to help with referrals.

  • I’m a Licensed clinical psychologist in New York (lic. #022497) and California (lic. #29247)

    Education:

    Doctorate of Clinical Psychology, John F. Kennedy University

    Bachelor of Arts- psychology, San Francisco State University

    Training & Approach:

    AEDP Level 2

    Trauma-Informed & Somatic based

    Psychodynamic, Attachment oriented, Contemplative & Mindfulness focused

    Integrative Evidenced Based Approaches including: IFS, ACT, CBT & DBT