My Approach

Healing begins in relationship. It’s one of the clearest findings in the research and the truest thing I know from the room. You deserve someone who is actually with you—paying attention, telling the truth, and willing to know you beyond a diagnosis, a role, or a protocol.

I’m anything but a “how does that make you feel?” therapist. We’ll talk about feelings, of course. We’ll also talk about what happened, what you learned to do to survive it, what those patterns cost you now, and what becomes possible when you no longer have to organize your life around them.

I draw on a range of evidence-based approaches, grounded in psychodynamic and existential work, and I fit them to you—never the other way around.

Today, in private practice, I work with adults on stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and relationship difficulties. I help people through life transitions—career changes, marriage, parenting, divorce, loss in all its forms, retirement—and through the ways we keep growing into ourselves at every stage of life.

What interests me most is how our development, our experiences, and our emotions shape what we do, how we suffer, and how we flourish.

You don’t have to be “sick” to deserve support, and you don’t have to know where to begin. Finding that is part of what we do together.

If You’ve Survived Trauma

Trauma can make your own life feel unfamiliar from the inside. You may be working, parenting, and showing up while part of you stays on alert or shut down.

This work is personal to me, and it’s clinical. I’m a Certified Trauma Professional, but I’ll never run you through a protocol. We move at a pace your system can tolerate. You don’t have to make your story neat first, or prove it was bad enough.

If Success Is Costing Too Much

You’ve built a career, a business, a family, a reputation for competence. From the outside, it looks like success. Inside, you may be tired in a way rest doesn’t fix.

I know that territory. I lived there for years while raising a family. The patterns behind that kind of success—responsibility, perfectionism, over-functioning, needing very little—usually take shape long before the success arrives. Eventually, the bill comes due. Therapy with me is a place to exhale. You don’t have to be impressive here.

My Why

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been trying to understand people—what makes us suffer, what makes us heal, what makes you you and me me. A hard, varied life gave me plenty to wonder about. My own therapy showed me what healing looks like from the inside.

I didn’t come straight here. After law school, I worked for a judge, then a large law firm, then as general counsel. The work was challenging, and the fighting and greed wore on me. What I loved was never the argument. It was helping clients through the fear and stress of the legal system.

So I left law and built a restaurant group. That had its satisfactions too. But it was always matters of the heart and soul—mine and other people’s—that gave me the most meaning.

Then came the pandemic. Like so many people, I took a hard look at my life, and I went back to school to do what I’d been circling all along. Now I’m a psychotherapist. That’s my why.

Getting Started

I work one-on-one with adults 18 and up, in person in Oak Park or by telehealth for clients located in Illinois. I meet by appointment so I can be fully present and prepared for our time together. Healing doesn’t always fit in a 50-minute box, so I offer 1-, 2-, and 3-hour sessions. I also offer a free initial consultation so we can see whether we’re a good fit. When you’re ready, I’m here. Reach out for a consultation.

I’m not in-network with insurance providers, but many clients are able to receive reimbursement for therapy through their out-of-network benefits. If you decide to go that route, I’ll provide an invoice you can submit to your insurance company.

As part of my commitment to transparency and care, I provide every client with a Good Faith Estimate of expected out-of-pocket costs in accordance with the No Surprises Act. If you’d like more details about your rights, you can call 1-800-985-3059 or click here.

My Resources page lists free and low-cost options for getting support.

Schedule a free consultation

My Clinical Experience

I began my clinical training in the Intensive Outpatient and Partial Hospitalization programs of the largest behavioral health system in the country. There, I used evidence-based interventions with patients facing depression, anxiety, trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, and co-occurring disorders, providing individual and group psychotherapy alongside a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, behavior therapists, and nurses.

I also worked in a group private practice, providing individual and couples psychotherapy to clients with a full range of mental health conditions.

Across these settings, I trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Behavioral Activation, and Exposure and Response Prevention.

My Clinical Qualifications

Education

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling at Concordia University Irvine

Professional License

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, State of Illinois

Professional Certifications

Certified Trauma Professional, Evergreen Certifications
Certified Anxiety Professional, Evergreen Certifications
Disaster Mental Health Certificate, American Red Cross
The Science of Wellbeing Certificate, Yale University
Gottman Method Level 1 Training, The Gottman Institute
Mandated Abuse Reporter Certificate, California Department of Social Services
HIPAA Safeguards & Best Practices Certificate, CE Learning Systems