Counselor

With two decades of counseling experience, an insistence upon a wholistic reimagining of "mental health" has evolved within my approach to wellness. This evolution considers personal, community, and wider system levels (family, work, culture, government, politics, justice, and healthcare), I collaborate with those seeking to reimagine their experience and the wider systems they still must navigate within.

By first emphasizing gentleness and curiosity - and acknowledging the epidemic of diagnoses and the harms of labeling people who are simply responding to the conditions of their lives, together we emphasize "compassionate pragmatism," and select from evidence-based practices tailored to honor your goals and capacities.
 

I am profoundly curious about what it is like to be you and tend to be skeptical of many diagnoses and psychotropic drug-based solutions. Furthermore, I do not race to diagnose and will typically seek consultation with at least two other licensed professionals before I do I provide a diagnosis. I will never provide a placeholder diagnosis just so an insurer will authorize a payout. I enjoy a wide referral network to guide you to a more appropriate professional. 

I do a lot of referring; twenty years in the Los Angeles helping community has cast me as something of an air traffic controller, guiding wounded yet brave aircraft to optimal runways and services. In short, I believe most people are doing what they know to do to try and make sense of - or simply endure - their experience. This is often NOT mental illness. 

Though bound by professional standards as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, and as a Licensed Advanced Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor, I am profoundly curious about what it is like to be you and tend to be confident. Our 50-minute telehealth sessions rarely exceed ten sessions in total, and feature several 90-minute, in-person walking sessions along beaches, trails, parks, and bluffs. There's that human thing again.
 

I hold a special fondness for "emerging adults;" those in the 17–28-year-old age range. Drawing from my background as Director of the Center for Collegiate Recovery at a major university in California for over a decade, and in my private practice work, I have come to recognize that "recovery" is no longer limited to just alcohol and other drugs but encompasses a collaborative conspiracy of wellness beyond substance misuse, including trauma, self-injury, relationship transitions, partner violence, emotional well-being, and even environmental and social justice. Getting and feeling better is no longer a mystery.