About me
If you ever come to my office, you will see that I have a little umbrella tree perched by one of my windows. Over the years, this flourishing plant has become a good friend and a regular source of inspiration and beauty. It has grown sideways, in the direction of the window— it’s light source. It instinctively knows that it needs light to grow and survive, it’s delicate leaves stretching out to touch and take in what’s nourishing. Its leaves follow the sun like open palms.
My hope is that psychotherapy can be a space where you can, like my plant, realign yourself to your source of nourishment. Together, we can discern what that means for you, in the context of your life and who you are. My aim in therapy is that you would not only come to understand yourself more deeply, but also that you would appreciate your pain and vulnerabilities, your strengths and resources. Through therapy, you can get yourself connected up to a place in you that is energized and awake and able to access healing potential.
So let me tell you a little more about myself: I’m a clinical psychologist licensed in the state of Massachusetts. I received my PhD from Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, California (where I also received an MA in theology, with a focus on Latin American theology).
In addition to my private practice, I am an adjunct professor at Lesley University, where I teach undergraduate psychology. I’m a yoga instructor too, so I am interested in somatic/physical processes and I have a deep appreciation for the body/mind/spirit connection. Finally, I also am currently a candidate at Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where I am training to become a psychoanalyst.
While in graduate school, my practicums were primarily in community mental health settings where I provided therapy to Spanish-speaking kids and families who were dealing with abuse or domestic violence. I also trained at Harbor UCLA in psychological testing. My doctoral dissertation focused on qualitative interviews (conducted over the course of 4 years) of 15 homeless children living on the streets in Lima, Peru. I was interested in these youths’ identity formation and how they came to see themselves. I wondered what they deemed as ideal or despised about who they were. I have always been interested in how people see themselves, and how this inner lens impacts their outer life. In my work in Peru, I saw street kids who were able— despite an entire culture of stigma against them and despite neglect and abuse from their families— to find a place of value inside, and that value was a faith that changed their worlds utterly, tilting them towards a positive trajectory.
I came to Boston for my internship and post-doc at the Danielsen Institute at Boston University and haven’t left since I got here. The Danielsen is unique in its offering in that it provides a rigorous psychological training while it also integrates spirituality into the therapy setting. This training enabled me to deepen my subtlety in navigating the spiritual/existential terrain that often gets awakened in a therapeutic process. I find it meaningful to identify with patients the ways their religious/faith beliefs and practices are helping them and where they might be hurting them. I also appreciate the disorientation that can occur when someone feels they have outgrown previous ways of knowing, and a shedding of the old beliefs is required. In my private practice now, I continue to find it especially meaningful to consider these existential and spiritual issues.
For over ten years, I have specialized in offering a safe space for people to address such issues as depression, anxiety, relational conflict, divorce, bereavement, personal growth, concerns about sexuality, religious/spiritual concerns, and struggles related to marginalization and acculturation. This is not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to put some words to why you might come to therapy. I am LGBT fluent, friendly and welcoming. I can do therapy in English, Spanish, or a little bit of both.
My primary approach is psychodynamic, but I am also deeply informed by Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking. I make it a practice to stay up-to-date and to learn multiple treatment methods so that I can work to tailor treatment according to patients needs. I have also completed some training in IFS (internal family systems) and AEDP (accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy), though I am not a certified practitioner of these models.
Therapy is for you if you feel a ripeness in you to lean in and listen to your life. To gain the capacity to face complicated and oftentimes frightening emotions is one of the bravest things you can do. It can lead you, like the plant I wrote about above, to a sunlight that is always there for you, even if as you move away or as the light is obscured.
My hope is that psychotherapy can be a space where you can, like my plant, realign yourself to your source of nourishment. Together, we can discern what that means for you, in the context of your life and who you are. My aim in therapy is that you would not only come to understand yourself more deeply, but also that you would appreciate your pain and vulnerabilities, your strengths and resources. Through therapy, you can get yourself connected up to a place in you that is energized and awake and able to access healing potential.
So let me tell you a little more about myself: I’m a clinical psychologist licensed in the state of Massachusetts. I received my PhD from Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, California (where I also received an MA in theology, with a focus on Latin American theology).
In addition to my private practice, I am an adjunct professor at Lesley University, where I teach undergraduate psychology. I’m a yoga instructor too, so I am interested in somatic/physical processes and I have a deep appreciation for the body/mind/spirit connection. Finally, I also am currently a candidate at Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where I am training to become a psychoanalyst.
While in graduate school, my practicums were primarily in community mental health settings where I provided therapy to Spanish-speaking kids and families who were dealing with abuse or domestic violence. I also trained at Harbor UCLA in psychological testing. My doctoral dissertation focused on qualitative interviews (conducted over the course of 4 years) of 15 homeless children living on the streets in Lima, Peru. I was interested in these youths’ identity formation and how they came to see themselves. I wondered what they deemed as ideal or despised about who they were. I have always been interested in how people see themselves, and how this inner lens impacts their outer life. In my work in Peru, I saw street kids who were able— despite an entire culture of stigma against them and despite neglect and abuse from their families— to find a place of value inside, and that value was a faith that changed their worlds utterly, tilting them towards a positive trajectory.
I came to Boston for my internship and post-doc at the Danielsen Institute at Boston University and haven’t left since I got here. The Danielsen is unique in its offering in that it provides a rigorous psychological training while it also integrates spirituality into the therapy setting. This training enabled me to deepen my subtlety in navigating the spiritual/existential terrain that often gets awakened in a therapeutic process. I find it meaningful to identify with patients the ways their religious/faith beliefs and practices are helping them and where they might be hurting them. I also appreciate the disorientation that can occur when someone feels they have outgrown previous ways of knowing, and a shedding of the old beliefs is required. In my private practice now, I continue to find it especially meaningful to consider these existential and spiritual issues.
For over ten years, I have specialized in offering a safe space for people to address such issues as depression, anxiety, relational conflict, divorce, bereavement, personal growth, concerns about sexuality, religious/spiritual concerns, and struggles related to marginalization and acculturation. This is not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to put some words to why you might come to therapy. I am LGBT fluent, friendly and welcoming. I can do therapy in English, Spanish, or a little bit of both.
My primary approach is psychodynamic, but I am also deeply informed by Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking. I make it a practice to stay up-to-date and to learn multiple treatment methods so that I can work to tailor treatment according to patients needs. I have also completed some training in IFS (internal family systems) and AEDP (accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy), though I am not a certified practitioner of these models.
Therapy is for you if you feel a ripeness in you to lean in and listen to your life. To gain the capacity to face complicated and oftentimes frightening emotions is one of the bravest things you can do. It can lead you, like the plant I wrote about above, to a sunlight that is always there for you, even if as you move away or as the light is obscured.