Request a free 30-minute video screening here. 

Do you want to find a way out of anxiety, OCD, and/or trauma that’s tailor-made for you?

I offer a compassionate, individually-tailored approach to working with anxiety, OCD, and/or trauma–as well as the depression, insomnia, and relationship problems that so often come along for the ride.

When you work with me, I will collaborate with you to individualize and tailor our approach to the unique subtleties of how anxiety, OCD, and/or trauma is showing up for you.  I’ve found that relying on a single method or approach is rarely sufficient to facilitate deep and meaningful change.  We will most likely need to draw on multiple approaches.  These approaches often include, but are not limited to:

1. The exposure model, in which you learn how to face your fears in a way that takes the power out of them.
2. The cognitive model, which involves identifying, challenging, and discovering new perspectives on thoughts and beliefs that feed into or sustain anxiety, OCD, or trauma.
3. The motivational model, which is a process of bringing to light and honoring all the ways in which anxiety, OCD, or trauma responses are trying to help you and reflect something important about you and what matters to you–and only then asking the question “Why would you want to let go of them, if at all?”
4. The acceptance model, which involves dropping the rope in the game of tug-of-war against your internal experiences, thus freeing them up to resolve on their own.
5. The relational model, which helps you uncover any rules you are following in interpersonal relationships that may be contributing to your experience of anxiety or OCD and gives you the agency to change them, if you choose to do so.
6. The hidden emotion model, which involves identifying feelings or desires that you might not be acknowledging, even to yourself, because they feel unacceptable to you–so they are showing up as anxiety instead. 
7. The habit model, which understands worry as a habit that can be changed with appropriate tools and practice.
8. For individuals with obsessive-compulsive tendencies or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), our work together may also involve an inference-based approach, which involves shedding light on the reasoning processes behind obsessive thinking that trick us into believing that our obsessive doubts are true and relevant.  It helps us become aware of the choice we face when we find ourselves on the bridge between the Land of Here and Now and the Land of Possibilities, where obsessions and compulsions live. This approach is an alternative to Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) but can also be used to supplement ERP.

In order for our work together to be effective, you will need to engage in homework between sessions.  This homework is likely to involve a combination of written exercises and the practice of new behaviors.  I may also ask you to monitor relevant thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors on a daily basis.  Another crucial piece of our work together will be your completion of before- and after-session surveys, so that we can track your progress over time and fine-tune our work together to be as helpful to you as possible.

Please note that I am currently offering sessions solely by teletherapy, except on an occasional basis, when you and I agree that our work together would be more effective if we were to meet in person (for example, for certain types of exposure therapy). You can choose to meet with me either for psychotherapy or for coaching. Psychotherapy includes a diagnostic evaluation and a treatment plan, and invoices can be submitted to your insurance company for out-of-network reimbursement. I am licensed to offer psychotherapy only in the state of Maryland. Coaching, in contrast to psychotherapy, does not include a diagnostic evaluation or treatment plan. It’s focused on helping you identify and achieve your goals, without making or treating a diagnosis. Since no license is required in order to coach, I offer coaching to people anywhere in the world. However, insurance companies do not reimburse for coaching.

Do you want to get your life back sooner rather than later?

I also offer intensive approaches to working with anxiety, OCD, and trauma to those for whom this feels like a good fit.

Psychotherapy has traditionally been offered in once-weekly 50-minute sessions–yet there’s nothing magic about 50-minute sessions. In fact, there’s mounting evidence that intensive approaches are more helpful to many.

The intensive approach is quite different from weekly 50-minute sessions, in which momentum is often lost between sessions, and there is limited time for within-session practice and transformation.

If you choose to meet with me intensively, we may meet as frequently as twice daily, or we may spread out our sessions, depending on your individual needs.  In most cases, I recommend that each of our meetings last at least two hours, so that we can take advantage of the momentum that tends to build up at the end of the first hour.  If two-hour sessions are not practical for you from a financial standpoint, I’ll let you know during your initial free consultation whether I think single-hour sessions could work for you.  For single-hour sessions, I often recommend daily sessions in order to keep up the momentum across sessions.

After completion of our intensive work together, you will have the option of meeting with me less intensively for a period of time to help you stay accountable to putting what you’ve learned from our work together into practice and integrating it into your life. You will also have the option of meeting with me for booster sessions on an as-needed basis.

Request a free 30-minute video screening here.