The Truth? I Get It.

I specialize in OCD, anxiety, and perfectionism because I find the personality type so relatable—people who want to optimize, hack the system, figure out how to avoid mistakes or bad things from happening. I have so much empathy for this type of person…because I am also that person.

I understand the pressure of wanting to be relatable while also being successful. Trying to be a fun parent while also working out, taking care of your mental health, staying informed about the world—and feeling like it’s impossible to do it all. 

How I Got Here

To be honest, I did not fully understand OCD until life sent me the gift of a tidal wave of clients struggling with OCD during the pandemic. I quickly realized: I need a lot more training to truly understand and support them.

That realization sent me on a journey that completely transformed how I practice therapy.

First came ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention therapy). This was a game-changer. Suddenly I had concrete ways to help clients right away. I could teach them that their intrusive thoughts were not real, not an indicator of who they are as a person—if anything, their desperate desire to do things “right” showed how deeply they cared about their values. Through exposures, clients learned they could handle more than they expected. They discovered their own capability. And they got free from behaviors that had been controlling their lives for years.

That’s what therapy is supposed to be about—people coming in, understanding themselves better, and leaving feeling freedom and excitement about life. Not just coming in every week to talk and leaving feeling the same.

But ERP was just the tip of the iceberg. I realized that people also have life experiences that led to this style of thinking. They have stories—beliefs about themselves—that live in their nervous systems and bodies, creating chronic pain, migraines, IBS, fatigue. I trained in EMDR so I could confidently help people let go of old narratives and finally understand themselves with compassion.

Then came mind-body work. I became fascinated by how trauma and stress actually live in our bodies—and how we can heal our physical symptoms by addressing what’s happening in our nervous systems.

And finally, IFS (Internal Family Systems). Because even with all these amazing tools, I kept seeing clients struggle with resistance to change. IFS helped me understand the why behind that resistance—why we have protective parts that aren’t ready to dismantle the very systems we came to therapy to change. Those systems have worked for us for so long. Of course they don’t want to let go easily.