FAQ

I live with my family in Berkeley, CA, and provide therapy from home virtually through a secure video platform to anyone in California.

There is evidence that virtual therapy is as effective as in-person in most cases. There are some cases in which in-person is more effective, but not with the populations I work with.

This is still a personal preference, and I completely respect those who feel they want to be in person after the pandemic. However, I do hear from people I work with that the benefits outweigh the downsides.

You can connect with your therapist from the coziness of your own couch, backyard, or another favorite corner of your home. You can maintain consistent therapeutic support when traveling for work or otherwise.

You have the freedom to do ANYTHING you need to immediately after a session without worrying about getting home in traffic, including meditating, crying, singing, drawing, journaling, sit with your feelings; all things I might suggest to folks after a session.

You can snuggle with your dog, cat, or other pets while we talk.

You can schedule therapy during the work day between meetings or on a break (when you can secure a private, comfortable place to do so, and it doesn’t add stress!)

I do not accept insurance. Unfortunately, our insurance system is not one that makes it easy for therapists or clients to make good use of this system. I am hopeful that will change someday, and I will make adjustments accordingly.

For now, I am considered an out-of-network provider. If you have Out-of-Network (OON) benefits, I hire a company that will help you get at least some reimbursed for sessions if your coverage allows. You can check your benefits HERE to see if you’re eligible for reimbursement.

My sessions are typically 45 minutes for individual sessions; however, I pay close attention to the flow of the session, and sometimes things naturally wrap up sooner than that, and sometimes people need another 5 minutes to feel a natural ending. It depends on the person and day, and I like to be flexible that way.

For relationship therapy, I start with a 75-minute session to gather sufficient information to start our work together.

It is expected that life will occur and sessions will need to be canceled; however, to make the most of therapy, weekly sessions are encouraged for the duration of our time together.

When an appointment needs to be canceled due to a conflict, I will do my best to fit you into a different slot that same week.

In the case of late cancellations, less than 24 hours prior to our appointment, there will be a cancellation fee of $150. In the event of an unexpected illness or family emergency, please do let me know so a fee waiver can be applied.

After we have completed the free 20-minute video consultation and agree to work with one another, we will set up a weekly meeting based on our mutual availability.

Once I book this appointment, you will receive an email from my online health record system with a request to complete and sign some forms. These forms will include my practice policies and some questionnaires that will help me to get to know you a little so that we can more easily start the work you come to therapy to do.

At this time, I will also collect payment information so that charges for sessions can be easily and automatically collected after each session without any hassle from you. I cannot hold our first session until all forms are completed and submitted to me.

In our first session, we will focus mostly on gathering details about what brought you to therapy and what you want to get out of the process so that we can create a foundation for the work we will do. This includes setting up goals for our work together.

This really depends on what you are coming to therapy for and what your goals are. The work I tend to do with folks is deep and lasting, so it can take time. By “time,” I do not mean years and years, however.

My goal is to support you to be in a place where you have resolved what you came to therapy for to the extent that you feel comfortable and confident that if/when additional bumps, triggers, or recurrences of your challenges arise, you will feel more confident and comfortable in responding to them without additional support. This really varies from person to person and is something we will discuss along the way.

It is important to me to have an open dialog about how therapy is going for you, and this includes discussing when it makes sense to end.

While this does vary based on what you are coming to therapy for, there are some things you can expect from me, no matter the situation. I am warm, and I care about every I work with – you will feel that from me. I help you feel that this time and space is about you, for you and yours completely.

I always start with checking in about how you are feeling now, in this moment (as a mindfulness therapist, this is essential), and then how your week has been and how you were able to bring in the intentions you set from the last session. I often ask what your priority is for the session or what you’d like to walk away with. If we stay away from that, I will do my best to bring us back.

In sessions, I will often help you connect with your body in some way (somatic therapy is another foundation of how I work), whether that means guiding you in an exercise or helping you think about ways to connect with your body between sessions.

I always end sessions by helping you reflect on what you are taking away from the session and what you would like to bring into your week, either as an intention or a concrete action plan.

Groups are going to be the most similar to individual therapy, except with other people, which allows some really rich transformation to happen.

Workshops with me are more about learning specific tools and techniques you can take and apply in your life. We also do that in therapy, but in my workshops, I am in more of a teaching mode. Because it is in a group setting, I am not going deeply into your own personal story, but more applying the tools and techniques in a general way. However, a workshop is a great way to access support quickly, affordably, and to participate in community, which is healing in and of itself.

Courses are similar to workshops, except I am not there with you live. You are watching or listening to me guide you in learning tools and techniques you can apply to solve the issues you are struggling with.

Courses are not live, so you can come back to them over and over. They can provide ongoing support to you! I suggest courses for people who are self-starters and are very motivated.

Much of my work with people is helping them connect deeply to their own truth, their own knowledge that is often buried deep about what they need and what is best for them. So I encourage you to pause in this moment and see if you know the answer to that question.

If you are asking, I am guessing you have already read through much of my material and have a sense of the differences between those things. My guess is that there was one that drew you in a bit more, that sounded and FELT right to you at this time. Maybe something else would have felt right another time, but I guess you know what you need right now, so I encourage you to trust that!

If you are still struggling to figure that out, feel free to call or email me, and we can chat! I can ask questions to help you get more in touch with what you might be needing right now.

It is funny that you should ask. I actually really happened upon it naturally as I evolved in my life. I never had any intention of becoming a therapist. I was drawn to social work as I was deeply impacted by working with young people in the foster care system while getting my undergraduate degree in early childhood education. I have always been interested in children and child development and was intending to become a preschool teacher.

However, those foster kids won my heart and inspired me to pursue my Masters in Social Work and subsequently work with this population for many years. First, as a therapist, doing multifaceted therapy also included supporting teens with many things, like developing social skills or connecting with resources in the community. After many years of this, I moved my way into leadership roles and spent many years supervising and training people to be high-quality therapists.

Only after leaving my job during the pandemic did I find this path of creating my own business to offer a wide range of therapeutic services on my terms. I believe strongly that there is not a one-size-fits-all model for anyone, which is why I felt it was important to create a business that offered not just individual therapy but also workshops, groups, and courses that can meet a wide range of needs. It also allows me to be creative and do a wide variety of things, which helps me be a better therapist.