Clinical Philosophy
Here’s what I’ve come to understand about chronic stress and anxiety: it’s not primarily a thinking problem.
It’s a body problem.
Years of sustained demand — in your work, your relationships, your responsibilities — don’t just wear on your mind. They shape how your nervous system responds to everything. When the pressure never fully lifts, your body stays on alert even when your brain knows the immediate threat has passed. That’s not anxiety as a personality trait. That’s a nervous system that has learned to protect you — and hasn’t yet gotten the signal that it’s safe to stop.
Cognitive approaches — understanding where your anxiety comes from, reframing your thoughts, building better habits — address the part of the problem the thinking mind can reach. They don’t address the part that lives in your body. That’s where I work.
"I help high-achieving women who are exhausted by their own resilience finally work through their anxiety — not just understand it — through body-based therapy that creates meaningful change from the inside out."
Origin Story
I’ve been a licensed psychologist for nearly two decades. What I kept seeing, across clients and clinical settings, was that insight wasn’t enough. Clients would come in, engage genuinely, develop real awareness into why they felt and behaved the way they did — and then leave still carrying the same thing they walked in with. The understanding was there. The relief wasn’t.
What shifted my practice was turning toward the body.
When clients began connecting with their internal, physical experience of their emotions — not just understanding them, but actually feeling what was happening in their bodies — that’s when things started to move. The relief they’d been looking for wasn’t in more insight. It was in learning to work with what their bodies were actually doing. That’s the work I do now.
Credentials
I’m a licensed clinical psychologist with individual licenses in Oregon, California, Idaho, and PSYPACT authorization to practice in participating states across the country. I work exclusively via telehealth with private-pay clients.
(I am an out-of-network provider for PPO insurance plans, which means you can get reimbursed by your insurance by submitting a Superbill or paid invoice).
This is doctoral-level psychological treatment — not wellness coaching, not breathwork, not a physical practice like yoga. What I bring is over 20 years of clinical training and experience combined with evidence-informed, body-based frameworks. That combination is crucial. The rigor and the embodied work are not in tension; they belong together.
“Knowledge is useless until it lives in the body.”
-proverb attributed to the Asaro tribe of Papau New Guinea
Training & Experience
Rosemead School of Psychology, Master’s & Doctorate in Clinical Psychology 2007
Somatic Experiencing Institute: Somatic Experiencing Practitioner training (in progress)
Certified Mindfulness-Informed Clinician
Continuing Education Training in these Modalities: SE, ACT, DBT, CBT, MBCT, ERP, MBSR, polyvagal therapy, mindfulness, and self-compassion
Citrus Counseling Services, Chief Clinical Director
Oregon State Hospital, Psychologist
Cognitive Care Solutions, Founder & President
Hoag Hospital, Neuroscience Dept, Cognitive Disorder Specialist
University of California Irvine, IMIND, Project Scientist & Lecturer