How do I get started?
Start by reviewing the Psychotherapy, Couples Intensives, or Relational Coaching page, based on what you are looking for.
Then you can schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation. We’ll briefly discuss what is bringing you in, address practical questions, and get a sense of whether working together might be a good fit.
For couples, I ask that both partners participate in the consultation whenever possible.
Who do you work with?
I work primarily with couples and individuals whose difficulties are relational in nature, including disconnection, recurring conflict, betrayal, grief, family patterns, self-abandonment, major transitions, and questions about intimacy, identity, and belonging.
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and highly responsible. They may appear to be functioning well from the outside while privately feeling lonely, emotionally overextended, resentful, disconnected from themselves, or unsure how to create the relationships they want.
My work is especially suited to people who want to understand what is happening underneath a pattern rather than simply managing its symptoms.
What do you specialize in?
My work centers on relationships: how we attach, protect ourselves, lose ourselves, repair, and remain connected without abandoning ourselves.
With couples, I work with recurring conflict, emotional distance, betrayal and loss of trust, resentment, transitions, uneven responsibility or power, and uncertainty about the possibility of repair.
With individuals, I often work with attachment patterns, relational grief, self-abandonment, family-of-origin dynamics, over-functioning, emotionally unavailable relationships, boundaries, identity transitions, and the effects of emotionally immature caregivers.
My approach is relational, somatic, attachment-informed, psychodynamic, trauma-attuned, and influenced by Relational Life Therapy, feminist and liberation psychology, relational-cultural theory, and relational psychoanalytic traditions.
What is your approach to couples therapy?
Couples therapy with me goes beyond learning to communicate more politely.
While communication is important, I also focus on each person’s internal experience during emotionally charged moments in the relationship.
Can you remain present when you feel criticized, ashamed, frightened, disappointed, or misunderstood? Can you recognize your impact without collapsing into shame or immediately defending your intentions? Can you remain curious about your partner’s reality when it differs from your own?
We address the relationship as it unfolds in the session. I help you slow down recurring patterns, notice bodily and nervous system responses, understand the protective strategies behind your reactions, and practice new ways of responding in real time.
The goal is not a conflict-free relationship. It is greater capacity for honesty, differentiation, accountability, tenderness, curiosity, and repair.
Sometimes that work helps a couple rebuild. Sometimes it helps them clarify whether the relationship can continue and what that would require. I do not begin with a predetermined outcome.
How long are sessions, and what are your fees?
Individual Psychotherapy
$250 / 50 minutes
Couples Therapy
$410 / 75 minutes
Seventy-five minutes is the standard session length for couples. Shorter or longer sessions may be recommended as needed.
Couples Intensives
Couples Intensives are priced according to format and include preparation, treatment planning, a personalized written summary, and a post-intensive integration session.
Intensive Assessment — $410 / 75 minutes
Focused Half-Day Intensive — $1,800
Full-Day Intensive — $3,500
Two-session Intensive Series — $3,600
Three-session Intensive Series — $5,200
Multi-Day Intensives — beginning at $6,500
Learn more about Couples Intensives →
Relational Coaching
Three-session coaching series — $1,350
Includes three 75-minute sessions, typically scheduled over six to eight weeks.
Single 75-minute sessions at $450 are selectively available for returning coaching clients and focused follow-up work.
Learn more about Relational Coaching →
Why are couples sessions 75 minutes?
Couples work requires enough time to address more than just the most recent argument.
A traditional therapy hour may end just as we begin to understand the dynamics between partners. Seventy-five minutes allows us to slow down, explore what each person is protecting, address emotional and physiological reactivity, and practice new approaches together.
The additional time allows us to work with the relationship itself rather than only talk about it.
How often will we meet?
Ongoing psychotherapy generally begins with a standing weekly appointment, held on the same day and at the same time each week.
Weekly meetings provide continuity and help us build momentum to address relational and emotional patterns while they remain accessible.
This is especially important for couples. When sessions are too far apart, therapy can become a series of updates rather than sustained work on underlying patterns.
Less frequent sessions may be appropriate later, once you have greater stability and can better recognize and interrupt patterns outside therapy. We make this decision together based on clinical progress, not scheduling preference.
Can we begin therapy every other week?
In general, no.
I do not begin ongoing individual or couples psychotherapy on a biweekly or occasional basis.
If weekly therapy is not feasible, Couples Intensives may be an option for couples, depending on the clinical situation.
A biweekly schedule may become appropriate later in treatment.
What are Couples Intensives?
Couples Intensives provide a larger block of focused therapeutic time when weekly sessions may not provide enough room.
They may be especially helpful after betrayal or a significant rupture, when a couple feels deeply stuck, when an important relational decision requires sustained attention, or when schedules make weekly therapy difficult.
I offer focused half-day and full-day intensives, multi-day options, and an Intensive Series consisting of two or three extended sessions over consecutive weeks.
All intensive work begins with an assessment to determine whether the format is clinically appropriate and what structure best fits the work.
What is the cancellation policy for Couples Intensives?
Because intensives require reserving a substantial and limited block of clinical time, a separate cancellation and rescheduling policy applies.
A 50% deposit is required to reserve intensive dates.
Full cancellation and rescheduling terms are provided before booking an intensive.
What is your cancellation and attendance policy for ongoing therapy?
Your weekly appointment is reserved specifically for you.
I require at least 48 hours’ notice to cancel or reschedule a session. Sessions missed, canceled, or rescheduled with less than 48 hours’ notice are charged the full session fee.
If you become suddenly ill and need to cancel within that window, one-half of the regular session fee is charged.
I understand that vacations, professional obligations, family events, and other planned absences occur. With adequate notice, clients may miss up to four regularly scheduled sessions per 12-month policy year without charge.
After those four absences, the regular session fee applies to additional missed appointments, as I continue to reserve that time.
Extended absences may require pausing treatment and releasing the standing appointment. Resuming therapy would then depend on availability.
Regular attendance is part of the therapeutic process. If maintaining weekly sessions becomes consistently difficult, we will discuss whether the current arrangement remains appropriate.
How long will I be in therapy?
There is no universal timeline.
Some people seek therapy during a specific crisis or transition and work with me for several months. Others stay longer to understand entrenched patterns more deeply and allow new ways of relating to become lived experience.
Couples therapy also varies in length. Duration depends on the relationship’s history and condition, the couple’s goals, attendance consistency, and each partner’s willingness to engage in the work.
We regularly revisit goals and progress. Therapy should be purposeful and responsive, not endless by default.
What does a session with you actually feel like?
Relational, present, grounded, and engaged.
I listen closely to your words and also observe what occurs beneath them: shifts in breath, pace, posture, emotion, energy, and how you move toward or away from contact.
I may invite you to slow down, notice what is happening in your body, stay with an emotion, explore a protective part of yourself, or pay attention to something happening between us in the room.
I also use reflection, inquiry, metaphor, humor, and direct feedback.
You do not need to arrive composed or know exactly what to say. You are welcome to come uncertain, angry, grieving, conflicted, overwhelmed, quiet, or unable to find the right words.
We begin with what is true.
Do you diagnose?
I do not primarily organize my understanding of people around diagnosis.
When a diagnosis is clinically relevant or necessary for insurance reimbursement, we can discuss it openly.
I am interested in the whole person: your history, relationships, body and nervous system, culture, adaptations, strengths, internal conflicts, and the circumstances that shaped your patterns.
What is called a symptom may also reflect an intelligent adaptation that has outlived its original purpose.
Therapy helps us understand both the wisdom and the cost of these adaptations.
Do you accept insurance?
I am an out-of-network provider and do not bill insurance companies directly.
Depending on your plan, you may be eligible for partial reimbursement for psychotherapy. I can provide a monthly superbill for you to submit to your insurer if needed.
Before beginning, I recommend asking your insurance company about out-of-network mental health benefits, deductible, reimbursement rate, couples therapy coverage, superbill submission, and diagnosis requirements.
Payment is due directly to me. Any reimbursement is arranged between you and your insurance provider.
Can I use an HSA or FSA?
Psychotherapy may be eligible for payment through HSA or FSA funds.
Because plan rules vary, please confirm eligibility with your plan administrator.
Do you offer reduced-fee therapy?
I reserve two reduced-fee spaces in my psychotherapy practice.
Both are currently filled.
When a space becomes available, I consider financial need, clinical fit, and the ability to commit to consistent therapy. Openings occur infrequently, so there is no predictable timeline.
You are welcome to join my reduced-fee interest list. However, if you need support now, I encourage you not to delay seeking care while waiting for an opening.
When possible, I am also glad to suggest lower-fee clinics, training institutes, or colleagues with greater availability.
Do you offer telehealth?
Yes.
Psychotherapy is available in person in San Francisco and virtually to clients physically located in California during the session.
Relational Coaching is a separate, non-clinical service available worldwide.
Couples Intensives may be offered in person or virtually when clinically appropriate.
What is the difference between psychotherapy and Relational Coaching?
Both can be deep, reflective, and relational, but they are distinct types of work.
Psychotherapy provides a clinical setting for working with emotional distress, trauma, grief, attachment wounds, family-of-origin dynamics, relational patterns, and mental health concerns.
Relational Coaching is developmental, not clinical. It focuses on self-relationship, relationships with others, transitions, identity, values, meaning, choices, and moving from insight to lived change.
I am a certified Integral Coach® through New Ventures West and hold the Professional Certified Coach (PCC)credential from the International Coaching Federation. I have worked professionally as a coach for nearly two decades.
Coaching does not include diagnosis or treatment of mental health conditions.
If your needs would be better supported through psychotherapy, I will discuss this with you directly.
Where does psychology meet the deeper life in your work?
My work is grounded in relational, somatic, psychodynamic, attachment-informed, and trauma-attuned psychology while also making space for meaning, mystery, ritual, altered states, spiritual experience, and the ways profound change can reshape our sense of self.
Some people seek not only to feel better, but also to understand what their suffering may be asking of them, what identity may be ending, or what kind of life is emerging.
You do not need to hold any particular spiritual or religious beliefs.
Some people understand their experience through psychology, attachment, and the nervous system. Others draw on dreams, ritual, contemplative practice, archetypal imagery, ancestral traditions, or spiritual experience.
You do not need to choose between psychological depth and spiritual meaning. If both matter to you, there is space for both.
Do you offer psychedelic preparation and integration?
Yes, within the scope of psychotherapy.
I offer psychological preparation and integration for adults approaching or making sense of non-ordinary states of consciousness.
Preparation may involve exploring intentions, fears, hopes, expectations, relational dynamics, relevant psychological history, and the support you may need for the experience.
Integration may include making meaning of emotions, memories, bodily experiences, images, or spiritual material; exploring how the experience relates to your relationships and life; and translating insight into grounded change.
I do not provide, prescribe, supply, or facilitate psychedelic substances, and I do not provide medical screening or advice about obtaining or dosing illegal substances.
My role is to provide psychological preparation and integration within the legal and ethical boundaries of my practice.
Do you offer groups or workshops?
Not at this time on a regular basis.
I am developing future groups, workshops, and learning experiences focused on relationships, self-abandonment, interdependence, attachment, gender, culture, grief, and how we learn to belong without losing ourselves.
Beyond 12 Steps is a project in development for women who have outgrown traditional codependency frameworks and seek a more relational, contextual, and feminist understanding of these patterns.
You can join my mailing list to receive new writing and announcements about upcoming groups, workshops, and offerings.
How do I know whether you are the right therapist for me?
A good fit involves more than credentials or shared language.
It is important that you feel I can understand your world, challenge you without shaming you, and remain present with experiences that may be difficult to articulate.
My work tends to fit people looking for therapy that is relational rather than detached, depth-oriented rather than highly manualized, somatically attuned rather than limited to intellectual insight, direct without being punitive, and open to complexity, culture, contradiction, meaning, and mystery.
I will not simply agree with everything you say, offer generic reassurance, or hand you a list of communication techniques.
I will help you understand the patterns that protect you, the ways those patterns may also limit you, and what greater honesty and relational capacity might ask of you.
The consultation is a place for both of us to begin sensing whether this is the right relationship for the work ahead.