What to Expect
We’ll start with a 10-15 minute introductory call to discuss why you are seeking therapy, answer any questions you may have, and decide if it makes sense to schedule an appointment.
The initial appointment is an extended 90-minute session, allowing you time to fully describe yourself and your reasons for seeking psychotherapy. The second session is 45 minutes, where we’ll take a more detailed history.
After first two sessions, we will discuss treatment goals and determine if you’d like to work together to achieve them. If, at any point, it becomes clear that your concerns are something I am unable to help with, I will let you know as early as possible and assist you in finding ongoing care.
Regular 45-minute sessions are $200.
90-minute initial appointment is an additional $20.
About SMSP
I tend to work particularly well with people who have tried therapy before—especially people who have found themselves frustrated by therapies that focus heavily on strategies, coping skills, or being told what to do. Maybe you've found yourself thinking, “I don't like being told what to do.”
I don't see therapy as a project to optimize or become a better version of yourself. Instead, I want there to be room for you to say what you actually think and feel, including what is confusing, contradictory, embarrassing, or difficult to make sense of. Together, we can become curious about the often multiple and complicated emotions that emerge when you do.
I'm interested in what brings you alive, what gets in the way of that, and what might actually feel possible to change. My approach is grounded in curiosity, levity, and a respect for the trouble of living fully. I don't think being a person is supposed to be easy, and I don't think every difficulty needs to be fixed.
Because therapy is a relationship, we'll also pay attention to what happens between us. The ways you experience me—and the ways I experience you—can tell us something about how you experience other people and how other people experience you. But this isn't just something we'll analyze from a distance. Therapy gives us an opportunity to have a different kind of relationship in real time, and that lived experience can sometimes make possible relationships and ways of being that haven't felt possible before.
I don't think depression, anxiety, or other symptoms have a single cause. Symptoms can be important information about something that isn't working—within our relationships, families, histories, communities, or the larger world we live in. I want to understand those contexts rather than treating your symptoms as problems that exist solely inside of you.
And I don't assume that I will always get it right. Your experience belongs to you. Part of my responsibility is to remain curious about the ways I may misunderstand you, miss something important, or fail to meet you where you need me to. I want our work to include the possibility of talking about that, too.
Please call, email, or click the contact button below with any questions.
What brings people to therapy varies, but some of the individuals I work with are folks who:
are children of parents with mental illness or substance use issues
tend toward self-criticism, self-sabotage, or have intrusive thoughts
feel immobilized to pursue their goals
have perfectionistic tendencies and high expectations for self and others
who wants to unlearn unhelpful messages from family or societal systems
are interested in exploring their gender or sexuality
struggle in their interpersonal relationships
or who are therapists or therapists-in-training