My Approach to Helping
I am a supervising and training psychoanalyst and I have received extensive training in dealing with anxiety, attachment issues, trauma, and interpersonal relationships difficulties. My clients are usually highly functional people who are aware they have unmet potential. They seem to feel stuck in their relationships for reasons they cannot explain, and need help meeting their potential and living fuller and better lives through self understanding. Many of my clients suffer fear of rejection or abandonment that holds them back from living their lives fully and feeling content in their relationships. I have completed my EMDRIA Approved EMDR Basic Training through the Parnell Institute which specializes in Attachment-Focused EMDR.
My practice is located in Irvine, in the spectrum area. My hours are pretty flexible, and I offer morning, afternoon and evening hours.
While I am not in network for any insurance company, I do serve as an out of network provider for most insurance companies.
More Info About My Practice
In addition to being a psychoanalyst who specializes in people with interpersonal relationships, I am also a certified counselor for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including depression and anxiety during pregnancy, postpartum depression and anxiety, OCD, and postpartum psychosis. In my work, I integrate my training with my personal experience of dealing with postpartum depression and anxiety, and having multiple miscarriages. My first-hand experience gives me a special insight, understanding, and an ability to help others in similar situations. I work with new parents who are struggling with the adjustment to parenthood, feelings of guilt, depression and anxiety, and the loneliness one can feel when caring for a baby.
In addition, I work with women diagnosed with breast cancer and help them deal with the initial shock, as well as helping them walk through what might sometimes feel like an overwhelming journey. Even after recovery, I help women process the experience and their new bodies, and help them cope with fears of recurrence, as well as shifting life priorities after the experience.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
My specialty is working with people who are looking for help with long standing interpersonal difficulties, people who suffer fear of abandonment or rejection that interferes with their ability to engage in meaningful relationships, and people who feel stuck in their lives and are looking to get unstuck and self actualize themselves mentally and intellectually. I have received extensive training in dealing with attachment issues and with relational trauma.
My sub-specialty is helping women with mental health issues that are connected to pregnancy and postpartum. I have received specific training through an organization named Maternal Mental Health Now, which certifies me to support and help pregnant women and new moms who might be suffering from depression and anxiety during pregnancy, postpartum depression and anxiety, OCD, and postpartum psychosis.
Important Factors for Choosing a Therapist
When choosing a therapist, I believe the best practice would be to go and meet with a few therapists, and try to assess with whom you feel the most connected and the most comfortable. Personal match between a therapist and a client is necessary for the therapy to be successful.
When interviewing therapists, pay attention to their ability to understand where you are at emotionally, their ability to receive feedback and meet you where you are at, and to how comfortable you feel with them. Sometimes it takes more than one session to make a decision. You should not feel uncomfortable to decide that this might not be the therapist for you, after all.
Theoretical Influences that Guide My Work
The theory I use depends on the client and the client's issues, but the main influence to my work comes from relational psychotherapy. Relational psychotherapy explores the impact of early and current relationships on a persons sense of self and well being; and uses the interaction between client and therapist to help the client understand patterns in other relationships.
What that means is that I might examine our own interactions and your feelings about what is taking place in the therapy room, in order to reflect on other important relationships in your life. The ways you feel with me, as well the ways you make me feel, resemble ways you engage with other people in your life. Thus, examining and reflecting on those experiences might be beneficial for your personal growth, as well as for deepening and strengthening your relationships with others.
