Talk Therapy
Sometimes the most powerful thing is simply having a space where you can say the thing out loud without managing how someone else feels about it, without softening it, without fear of judgment. Talk therapy is the foundation of the work we do here. Through honest conversation, we make sense of your experiences, uncover the patterns underneath your struggles, and build new ways of thinking and relating that actually fit who you are. It’s not just venting, though that has its place. It’s about making meaning, finding clarity, and moving forward with a better understanding of yourself.
Play Therapy & Creative Approaches
For children and many teens, play is not a distraction from the work, it is the work. Children communicate through play. Play therapy uses games, art, storytelling, and creative activities to help young people express what they can’t yet put into words. It taps into the way children and adolescents naturally process their experiences, make sense of confusing emotions, and try out new ways of being in the world. Creative projects might include drawing, writing, building, or role play, whatever unlocks something real for that particular person. No artistic skill required. What matters is what comes through, and what we can do with it together.
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
TF-CBT is one of the most researched, evidence-based approaches for helping children, teens, and young adults heal from trauma, including abuse, loss, violence, and other distressing experiences. It works by helping you understand how trauma has shaped your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and then, with the right support, building the skills to process those experiences without being overwhelmed by them. TF-CBT also involves caregivers when appropriate, because healing rarely happens in isolation. I am certified in this approach, which means you’re in trained, experienced hands from the first session.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT was built for moments when emotions feel too big, too fast, or completely out of control, when you’re overwhelmed and don’t know how to come back down. It teaches concrete, practical skills in four key areas: staying grounded in the present moment, tolerating distress without making things worse, understanding and regulating your emotions, and navigating relationships more effectively. DBT is especially helpful for teens and young adults dealing with intense emotional swings, self-harm, or patterns of conflict in relationships. DBT isn’t about discussing abstract concepts, it’s learning tools you can actually use the next time things feel like too much.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Solution-focused therapy flips the usual script. Rather than spending all of our time analyzing what’s wrong, we spend a meaningful amount of it building toward what’s possible. We look at moments when things have already gone well, even slightly, and ask what was different then. We get specific about the life you’re trying to create, and we use that vision as an anchor throughout the work. This approach works particularly well when someone feels stuck or overwhelmed and needs to reconnect with their own agency and capability. You already have more strength than you think. This approach helps you find it.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy starts with a simple but powerful idea: you are not your problem. The struggles, labels, and stories that have been placed on you, by others or by yourself, are not the full truth of who you are. Together, we separate you from the story and take a closer look at it: where it came from, whose voice is in it, and whether it still serves you. From there, we work to identify a richer, truer account of your life: one that centers your values, your resilience, and the person you’re becoming. This approach is especially meaningful for young people who have internalized messages of shame, inadequacy, or being “too much.”