Therapy is often the right place to begin if you are struggling with worry, overwhelm, anxiety, panic, or obsessive, intrusive thoughts.
Who is therapy for?
You may feel exhausted by how much energy it takes to cope with chronic stress and the emotional weight of a full life. Perhaps you find yourself caught in patterns you know are not serving you. Or maybe you feel like an imposter, plagued by self-doubt, self-criticism, and perfectionism. You may feel disconnected from yourself, too, and struggling to find a sense of meaning and purpose.
On the outside, you seem put together and successful. But inside, you feel anything but.
Therapy offers a space to better understand what you are experiencing, develop practical tools, and create meaningful change. It is the right fit when emotional distress, anxiety, obsessive or perfectionistic patterns, fear, stress, or other mental health concerns are interfering with your life and well-being.
My therapeutic work is especially well suited to smart, thoughtful, capable women who want more than symptom management alone. Yes, they want relief. But they also want the deeper work: to understand themselves more fully, to loosen the grip of patterns that keep them stuck, and to build lives that feel more expansive, aligned, and truly their own. They are not looking for a quick fix. They want to create and learn to live a life that no longer feels too small.
What is therapy like?
My approach to therapy is thoughtful, evidence-based, and deeply collaborative. I bring warmth, curiosity, and directness to the work. I aim to create a space where you feel safe enough to be honest, understood enough to go deeper, and supported enough to make meaningful change. I will help you reflect, notice patterns, strengthen skills, and move toward change. My goal is for therapy to feel deeply supportive, gently challenging, and genuinely useful.
Therapy with me is not just about talking through problems. Together we work to better understand the patterns that are keeping you stuck, develop greater emotional flexibility, and make changes that are both practical and lasting. The work is about increasing awareness, strengthening your capacity to respond differently, and helping you move toward a life that feels less constricted by fear and more guided by what matters to you.
My Areas of Focus
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Your worries have hijacked your life. You struggle to be present in it. You ruminate, about things that have happened (“did I say something stupid?”) or that may happen (“what if I get fired?”), and cannot stop or control the avalanche of thoughts. Your worry may show up physically: heart pounding, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, trembling hands, sweating. Or, these sensations may show up out of the blue and, in the worst cases, it may escalate to the point that you feel like you’re having a heart attack, and you truly think you’re going to die.
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The doctor told you you’re not sick... And the test results came back fine, but your life is consumed by the fear that you’re actually seriously ill, or will develop some serious illness in the future. You’re constantly checking in with your body. And, researching symptoms, conditions, and causes online. There is no respite from the fear; you struggle to fully engage in thinking of, or doing, anything else, as it’s always there. And, it’s causing havoc in your relationships; although your friends and family try to reassure you, it works only for a short while, and they may be becoming frustrated.
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You experience intrusive thoughts. The most extremely scary, catastrophic thoughts (obsessions). Nothing you do can make them stop. But it feels like you can manage them, sometimes, if you do the thing (compulsions) that will make sure you’re safe or that will prevent something bad from happening. The compulsions can vary greatly. For some, it’s something concrete like handwashing, but for others, it’s a mental ritual like reassuring yourself, mentally reviewing, or trying to rationalize to eliminate doubt. But, the compulsions are a trap… because they don’t really solve the problem, they just keep you stuck in a repetitive pattern that’s not serving you, and they don’t really keep you safe after all.
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There is a very real connection between the gut and the brain. And it’s a two-way street: anxiety and depression can create and worsen gut symptoms, and vice versa, the experience of distress in the gut can create or exacerbate mental health difficulties. If you have IBS, you may, because of this condition, worry about or feel defeated by the limits it has placed on your life. You may have developed worries about food. You may avoid going out or frequently cancel plans. You feel anxious for days about eating out or traveling. You may believe that living this way is “intolerable,” that you’re “helpless,” or that this is “terrible and it’s not going to get any better.”
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You’re overwhelmed. You struggle to find balance between work and life. You can’t get it all done and you feel like you’re definitely not doing enough. And, it seems there is never a reprieve; it feels as though ‘it’s always something’ and you’ll never be free to just relax (and even if you were, you’re not sure you’d know how!).
This overwhelm and stress may be caused by big changes in your life. You’re in transition. The sand is shifting beneath your feet, leaving you feeling unsteady, uncertain. You may even feel like you’re flailing. The unknown, the unanswered questions (“what’s next?”), even if it’s a good change, can be really uncomfortable. And, often the more you try to plan, the worse you feel.
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You’re your own worst critic. You would never speak to anyone else the way you speak to yourself. No matter how hard you try, and no matter what you accomplish, you feel guilty, inadequate, not good enough. Your standards, for yourself, are incredibly high, unreasonable even, although you’re able to give grace to others. You put others before yourself and struggle to say no. And then, as a result, you’re depleted, and then resentful of the time you give to others.
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You feel stuck. You’re dissatisfied. You’re tired of simply surviving — or just tolerating — your life. You may find your work, your relationships, maybe even the general course of your life, unsatisfying. Perhaps you remember a time when you had zest for life, a sparkle. But, you lost it somehow. Or… maybe you’ve never really had it. Maybe you’re struggling to find that energy, that gusto, that gumption for the first time. A sense of purpose or direction — even a clear sense of your identity — eludes you at the moment. You have no idea what the next best step is for you. But, you do know you’re ready to truly live. You’re ready to figure out what is most important to you, and to live in alignment with those values.
Therapy vs. Coaching
Unlike coaching, therapy is a clinical service focused on emotional distress, mental health concerns, and patterns that are causing significant suffering or getting in the way of your well-being. It may include diagnosis, treatment planning, and work aimed at symptom relief and emotional healing.
If what you need is space to work through anxiety, intrusive thoughts, chronic worry, perfectionism, or other forms of suffering that are interfering with your life, therapy is likely the better fit.
The Goal of Therapy
The goal of therapy is to help you heal, find relief, and create deeper change in the patterns that are interfering with your well-being. It is about easing suffering and learning to respond to life more skillfully. Over time, therapy can help you loosen the grip of fear and self-doubt so that you can live with greater freedom and a deeper connection to what matters most.
The Most Important FAQs for Potential Clients
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Almost. I must be licensed in the state I am in (Connecticut), as well as the state my client is in. Because I’m licensed in the states of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Kentucky, I can see you if you live — or are physically located — in one of these five states, or in a participating PSYPACT state (which at this point is most of the U.S.), at the time of our session. These rules apply to both therapy and coaching services.
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I primarily work with women in their 30s to 60s. I do not treat adolescents or children. I also do not provide family or couples therapy.
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$350 for the first two-hour session, $250 for subsequent 45- to 50-minute sessions. These rates apply for both therapy and coaching sessions.
With regard to therapy: No, I do not accept insurance, and am not in-network with any insurance companies. I have also opted out of Medicare. I have a self-pay arrangement with my clients, and accept payment in the form of a credit or HSA card. If your insurance company offers out-of-network reimbursement, I can provide Superbills when appropriate. You may obtain a Good Faith Estimate of charges upon request prior to scheduling.
With regard to coaching: Coaching is not a healthcare service. It is not medical or mental health treatment. It is therefore not reimbursable by insurance.
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I am in the office Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and see clients between the hours of 9:00 and 5:00.
I recognize that my hours may coincide with your work hours. However, my clients and I have found that, because they are able to log on remotely, they have been able to schedule a session during their lunch hour, or on a day when they’re working from home. Virtual sessions have proven immensely beneficial to many of my clients, allowing them to prioritize their self-care and fit therapy or coaching into their busy lives in a way a session that requires a commute does not.
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I do ask all potential clients to review this information, in The Most Important FAQs for Potential Clients, to ensure that my policies are in line with your expectations. (If you reach out and you’ve read through these questions already, please mention it!)
If so, then we schedule an initial consultation call. Over a 20 to 30 minute phone call, you can tell me a bit about your specific situation, and I can talk with you about what working with me might look like. Then, we make sure we’re on the same page as far as logistics and, if we’re on the same page at that point, we can look at scheduling.
You can reach me directly by filling out the Contact form or sending me an email. I hope to hear from you soon!
