Education
Psy.D., Clinical Psychology
The American School of Professional Psychology inWashington D.C.
M.A., Clinical Psychology
The American School of Professional Psychology in Washington D.C.
B.A., Psychology
James Madison University in Fredericksburg, VA
Professional Experience
I have worked in the private practice setting as a Licenced Clinical Psychologist since May 2012. I completed my postdoctoral training at a private practice where I conducted psychological testing with a wide variety of clinical and nonclinical populations, including ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, custody case evaluations, and forensic evaluations.
I also provided individual psychotherapy to adults and children and assisted in supervising students with testing and psychotherapy cases.
During my graduate training, I have wroked in a variety of settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals, outpatiet mental community centers, school systems, and residential centers. I have experince working with dissociative disoders, serious and persistent mental illness, children who have experienced abuse and neglect, multicultural populations, and individuals who suffer from chronic physical ailments. I also have extensive experience leading group therapy sessions.
My Current Practice
I provide psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and adults, presenting with a wide variety of issues including: anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mood disorders, relationship problems, autism-spectrum disorders, stress management, trauma, and dissociative disorders. I also have a special interest in issues related to health psychology, particularly in helping individuals and their families cope with chronic illness. Working with individuals from various cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc. is also of particular interest to me.
My Therapeutic Approach and Philosophy
Making you feel comfortable so that we can build a trusting and secure relaitonship is my number one goal. I strongly believe that the therapeutic relationship is the most important element to successful treatment. Making the decision to enter therapy takes personal strength, wisdom, dedication, and courage. For this reason, you can expect me to always be there to listen attentively, give you appropriate feedback, support you, follow ethical guidelines, maintain confidentiality, and provide you with easy-to-understand psychoeducation.
I always strive to create a nonjudgmental environemnt, where you can feel comfortable to discuss your innermost thoughts and feelings. My therapeutic style draws from a number of different theoretical approaches because I believe that therapy has to be tailored to each individual patient. I will always make sure to be sensitive to your cultural and ethnic background, as I believe it is very helpful in understanding an individual’s current issues and in devising an effective treatment plan.
Together, we will help you gain insight, self-awareness, and a widening of perspectives, so that you can better understand your symptoms and coping strategies. It is often the case that we adopt coping skills that were helpful in getting us through a major stress or trauma, but then we continue using those same techniques that become unhealthy and maladaptive. In therapy, we will identify the source of your current struggles, gain a better understanding of them, identify your current coping tools and add new and healthier ones. We will help you achieve personal growth, strengthen your inner sense of self, improve relationships through better communication skills, and gain symptom relief.
I thank you for considering me as your therapist and I look forward to taking this journey with you :)
