Women’s Issues

Women’s mental health issues are broad and all encompassing. Concerns may be specific to your identity as a woman such as gender discrimination or motherhood but they are also very likely to include struggles experienced by women that have nothing to do with gender.

I focus on women’s issues because gender has been found to be a critical determinant of mental health well-being. Women have been found to experience depression and anxiety at a higher rate. Women are also more likely to be the victim of intimate partner violence. Issues with self-esteem/self-worth and co-dependency are more prevalent amongst women. Motherhood, parenting, and life transitions also rate high in areas of concerns.

Although the issues listed here are not unique to women, in our sessions we examine how they may be shaped by our lived experience as a woman. I work with my clients to dig deep, and utilize the inner strength we all possess, to help them overcome the limitations and restrictions that keep them stagnant. We work toward a more empowered, attuned, and stronger self.

Relationships

The relationships we have in our lives can be both challenging and rewarding, they are complex and ever-evolving. Interpersonal challenges can manifest in all of our relationships – our intimate partnerships, familial relationships, and personal friendships. Therapy allows you the opportunity to explore the significant relationships you have in your life at a deeper level with a neutral and supportive person. I have witnessed therapy improve my client’s relationship they have with themselves which in turn causes transformative changes and improvements in their personal relationships.  

When working through relationship issues, I assist my client’s in gaining perspective of how their early relationships have laid a foundation for their current ways of interacting with others. We explore and process the past in order to gain perspective for the now. We heal the past in order to nourish our relationships of today. We examine core beliefs and their impact on our person. In turn, we are able to improve communication skills, break old unhelpful patterns, and create new, meaningful relationships.

Trauma

Trauma can have a lasting negative impact on the way people perceive and behave in the world. Our mind and body processes and stores these events in ways that, if left untreated, can affect us and ours for generations to come. People who survive traumatic events, oftentimes, carry residual feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety that can be debilitating and overwhelming. Their relationships may suffer, they may have difficulty trusting others, or avoid intimacy altogether. They are also prone to engaging in self-destructive behaviors in order to cope with the pain associated with the trauma.

Therapy has proven to be helpful in alleviating these harmful effects and in providing relief from the pain. In my work treating trauma, I provide my clients with the tools they need in order to face their past experiences stronger and more resilient. I utilize evidence-based practices that are known to be effective in treatment.

The purpose of trauma work is to help you make sense of it, develop new and healthy coping skills, increase your ability to regulate your emotions, liberate you from unhelpful ways of thinking, and desensitize you to your traumatic past. By doing the work, trauma survivors are able to change the way they feel about themselves, rediscover a new sense of empowerment, and rewrite their life narrative.