You grew up somewhere your emotional needs went quiet.
No one asked how you were really doing, or asking would have cost too much. So you learned to handle it yourself, to keep what hurt out of sight, to need less than you actually needed.
That worked for a long time. It is also why reaching out feels so unfamiliar now.
What you have been looking for is simple, even if it has been hard to find. A safe place to land.
Someone you can finally tell everything to.
That is what I want my office to be for you. A place where you set the weight down for an hour and find that you are genuinely, unhurriedly met.
You have been carrying it by yourself for a long time.
The thing you do not say at dinner. The worry you talk yourself out of mentioning. The memory you have learned to step around.
You got good at holding all of it. But holding it has never been the same as being free of it.
In our work, you set it down where someone else can see it. I help you carry the burden.
You stop being the only one who knows the full weight of what you are living with.
That alone changes something. Pain that gets spoken to another person stops working the way it did in silence.
I think of therapy like this.
I hold the flashlight as we walk inside a dark cave.
You lead. I light the path.
We move at your pace, and we go where you decide to go.
That is the heart of how I work. I will be with you all the way, and the choices that matter stay yours.
Here is something I believe about people, and it shapes everything I do.
Human beings have a natural pull toward becoming more whole. You already carry the capacity to grow.
My job as a therapist is to remove the obstacles in the way of that growth.
Some of those obstacles are old beliefs about what you are allowed to need. Some are wounds that never had a chance to heal.
Some are patterns that protected you once and now hem you in.
We work with them together. Slowly, the things that have been running your life from the background come into the open, where you can finally do something with them.
I bring deep experience with trauma to this work, including fifteen years helping people recover from PTSD and complex trauma. When the pain runs deep, I know how to sit with it.
You will not overwhelm me, and you will not be rushed.
I am a licensed psychologist, and I have also been the one sitting in the client’s chair.
Having sat there, I know what it feels like to struggle, to resist asking for help. Therapy helped me reconnect with myself, and I have seen it do the same for countless others.
My calling emerged early, out of a deep curiosity about human behavior. I earned my Master’s and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Adler University in Chicago.
Early in my career I worked as a licensed clinical professional counselor in a psychiatric hospital emergency room, and with high-risk populations in urban hospitals and VA medical centers.
I worked extensively with underserved communities in Chicago-area urban hospitals, specializing in trauma and severe mental health issues. For fifteen years I served as a VA psychologist, helping many clients recover from PTSD.
Beyond the hospital, I have volunteered with survivors of torture and asylum seekers here in the Chicago area. I opened my private practice in 2010.
My approach is collaborative and evidence-based. I draw on Emotionally Focused Therapy, humanistic and client-centered work, EMDR, Prolonged Exposure, CPT, somatic and mindfulness-based grounding, and gentle CBT, and I shape the work around you.
When I am not in my clinic you will find me outdoors with my two beautiful daughters either biking by the lake, walking in the forest preserve or camping. I love cooking for my family as well.
I am an avid tennis fan, and you’ll find me on the tennis court most weekends.
Something brought you here, and that is worth paying attention to.
If you are ready to have someone you can tell everything to, I would be honored to walk alongside you. Reach out for a free consultation, and let’s take that first step together.
Whatever has been pressing on you – whether you’re the one everyone leans on, the one grieving in silence, or the one who can’t quite find home – that pain can be understood, and it can change.
If you’re ready to begin, I’d be honored to walk into the cave alongside you and help illuminate the way. Call me for a free consultation, and let’s take that first walk together.
A free 15-minute call. No pressure – just a first conversation.