Denver-based therapy for anxiety and people-pleasing in women and LGBTQIA+ people ages 18 - 35.
I work with women and queer people who are perfectionistic and hard on themselves. You set goals for yourself that aren’t reachable, and you feel like you’re failing, though from the outside it may look like you have it together. You know that the patterns in your life aren’t working, yet it’s hard to identify what to change and make those changes on your own. It’s a big step to even recognize that you might benefit from therapy.
Healing doesn’t happen in isolation. Together, we can untangle old narratives, identify the things that aren’t working in your life, and develop new coping methods that work for you.
Therapy depends on us developing a safe relationship from which we can explore your feelings and concerns. In our therapy sessions, you can expect compassion, as well as a focus on practical skills on how to relate differently to the stress and loss in your life.
I draw from several styles of therapy, including ACT, CBT, and DBT. I practice from a queer-affirming, feminist perspective. I am passionate about disability justice and Health at Every Size (HAES).
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): ACT helps people identify what they can change and cope with what they cannot change. We focus on your values and how you can live a more authentic life in line with what is important to you. Research shows ACT is helpful for anxiety, loss, life transitions, chronic pain, disordered eating, depression, and many other concerns. ACT can be helpful for grief because there is often so much out of our control after a loss, whether the loss is death-related or is a loss of safety, trust, relationship, job, etc. I also find ACT useful in the context of climate anxiety and despair regarding political issues to redirect toward what is within our power and grieve what is not.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are interrelated. We often can’t just change our feelings (or nobody would feel depressed or anxious!). We can, however, adjust our patterns of thoughts and behaviors, which brings emotional relief.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): DBT helps people “ride the wave” of big emotions and learn to tolerate distress.