What does therapy cost?

$220 per individual session; $220 for relationship therapy. 

Do you offer a sliding scale?

I maintain a couple of open slots for a reduced fee on a limited basis and if available. Priority for these slots is given to those in marginalized communities and based on financial need.

How often are psychotherapy sessions?

Typically we would meet at least once per week, however, more focused psychoanalytically-informed work does typically require more frequent sessions. Sessions are generally 55 - 60 minutes.

Do you have any specialities?

I have extensive training and experience working with complex trauma, PTSD, mood and anxiety disorders from a psychoanalytic orientation. I also have extensive experience in working with substance abuse and addiction, having led and co-facilitated individual and intensive outpatient group therapy for more than five years for those in early recovery at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the nation's largest facility in the world providing services to LGBTQ people. I practice psychoanalytically-informed psychodynamic therapy that aims to help clients access their own self-agency, recognize unconscious patterns that impede upon their lives and mourn what was lost or not given.  My education and background include over 25 years of weekly personal analysis and gay-entered inner work. In addition to being a clinician, I am also an academic and have taught the depth tradition to nascent psychotherapists at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Montecito, California for the last seven years.

How does therapy work?

Therapy typically starts with building trust and rapport within the client-therapist relationship. Over time, we begin to recognize unconscious patterns or issues that lie in the periphery of a person's awareness which influence decision-making processes, moods and behaviors. Clients generally come to therapy when they are stuck in one of these psychological spaces. Sometimes, especially in the beginning of therapy, things can feel worse before they start feeling better as the unconscious material begins to surface into awareness and be grappled with. As it took many years for defenses and patterns to constellate, it takes time and will to deconstruct these issues so that they have less dominance over our lives.