I have a great respect for those who seek to improve their quality of life. My life's work is dedicated to help facilitate that process and help collaborate to create clarity. I'm a Marriage and Family Therapist providing psychotherapy to children, individuals, couples, and families. I have worked in Santa Barbara serving the community since 2005. I can work with a multitude of problems that may be overwhelming or concerning to you and/or your family. I also work with preventive measures to prepare, plan, and handle future problems. I have experience and training working with a wide variety of diagnosis, life issues and concerns that face an individual, couple, and/or family i.e. depression, anxiety, transitions, burnout, trauma, relationship concerns, communication, self-esteem and much more. I provide a personal, confidential, and a unique counseling experience. I will help you explore what is overwhelming you or creating distress in your quality of life. I believe that therapy is a positive investment in one’s self that creates personal growth and enhances one’s life. I am a practical and interactive therapist; my treatment approach is to provide support with insight and feedback to help address current and/or long-standing issues I have a few specialties that I have extensive training, experience, and education in which are listed below. Pre-marital counseling - Helping the couple plan and prepare for a lifelong marital commitment. While addressing the stresses of the upcoming nuptials, we work on skills to communicate better, fight fairly, compromise, and help pin point issues of disagreement and highlight strengths that will facilitate building a road map to a successful lifelong marriage
Life Transitions, This can be at any point or age in your life, when things become a bit overwhelming and you are not sure where you should go or what the next moves in life will be. Transitional issues tend to revolve around the big areas in your life but aren't limited to, school/job decisions, relationship decisions, family and or location decisions. For example, that entire decade of one's twenties where things may not make sense and one might be consumed with feelings of dissatisfaction, whether with yourself, with your partner, or job. A lot of anxiety and depression can go hand in hand with life transitions, so I enjoy helping you find ways to manage and decrease this. I love my work with all ages of adults, helping to figure out how to manage, balance, and successfully transition through life stages and events. Children, Tweens, and Teens - I have had extensive years of experience with this age group; communication, relationship issues, self-injurious behaviors, self-esteem, body image, anger management, and more. This work is best done with collaboration from parents to help support their child in the therapeutic process. I also have a specialty working with youth who are in the foster care system or who have been adopted and facing the struggles of transition, adjustment with a new family, rules, cultures, and difficult feelings. I also provide family planning for those who are considering foster care or adoption. EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy. I have been trained in EMDR and it is a newer therapy discovered in the last few decades that is being researched with great outcomes for trauma, PTSD, and anxiety. This style of therapy needs specialty training and helps get you past your past! For more information about EMDR you can contact me or read the FAQs at http://www.emdr.com/faqs.html
Background - I graduated from University of Santa Barbara in 2007 with my Bachelor of Art’s in Sociology and a Minor in Psychology. I continued onto graduate school and received my Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology in early 2009. I have developed my experience from such non-profit agencies as Hospice of Santa Barbara, Family Service Agency, Community Action Committee, and Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. I also served on the board for the Santa Barbara chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists for five years (2009-1014). Currently I am apart California MFT Consortium of the Central Coast Region and have been active with them since 2013. In my spare time I am an active member of Junior League of Santa Barbara, serving my community with my skill sets and volunteerism. JLSB is currently supporting and educating Santa Barbara County in their focus area of human s*x trafficking and foster care support. If there is something you are dealing with, that I don’t work with, I have a network of great therapists that I can refer you to. If I am not the right fit, I am happy to help connect you with the right therapist. It is important to note, therapists are not one size fits all! I offer a free 20 minute phone consultation, so do not hesitate to call and find out if I can help you work towards a happier and fulfilling quality of life.
- See more at: http://www.therapistsb.com/about-dre .HFNTYHH0.dpuf
