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Our Focuses

Psychotherapy

I hold that the client is the authority on their lived experience,  their desires, and their preferred strategies for relating, growing and healing. In early sessions, and repeatedly through therapy, we review what feels most important, and what strategies are most helpful. I support clients in accessing resources and practices that will help them outside of the therapy hour, including personal practices, community connection and online and print resources.  My practice is varied. I see children to elders, in-person in my Santa Cruz office and virtually throughout California, and I use a variety of therapeutic strategies. My specialties are somatic psychotherapy, neurodiversity-affirming care, and gender-affirming care.  I see people at different frequencies: some 3-4 times a month, some 2 times a month, and some, who are seeking adjunctive somatic supports or parenting support, see me once a month or as needed.

You, or your child, may find my work helpful if you or they are seeking

  • someone who "gets" them

  • understanding of how to better live in a neuro-normative world

  • help with supporting and relating with children and partners across neurotypes

  • support through a gender journey

  • somatic therapy, including or not including touch psychotherapy

  • somatic integration and/or preparation for surgeries

  • somatic integration and preparation for journey work

Mountainous Landscape

Gender Explorative & Affirming Therapy

Whether you are looking for a gender specialist who can help you or your child explore issues of gender identity or expression, or you are a transgender or non-binary person who is looking for a therapist to help them with life issues without needing to be educated about trans experience, I am here for you. I also specialize in the overlap of transgender and autistic/neurodivergent experiences, and in working with the physical experience of transgender identity and with hormone and surgical transitions.

Neurodiversity Affirming Therapy

I am here to support and advocate for autistic and other neurodivergent people. I honor neurodivergent people as the experts on their experiences. I will listen to what you or your children need, and make adjustments in my office and communication to support greater ease in therapy.

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Common issues that my neurodivergent clients bring to therapy include: sensory overwhelm, health issues, anxiety, depression, frustration with trying to accomplish goals, relationship struggles, family and school issues, gender identity and sexuality. It's true what they say, "You've met one autistic person — you've met one autistic person." I create, with my clients, strategies that meet each person's particular needs and circumstances.

Somatic Therapy

Somatic psychotherapy offers something different from either standard talk therapy or bodywork as it integrates both physical and psychological strategies. Often clients tell me that, after years of trying other talk-based therapies, they were able to achieve deep and lasting growth and healing from somatic therapy strategies.

 

My somatic work includes both touch-psychotherapy (fully clothed) and somatic work that doesn't include physical touch. I have been fortunate to have received extensive training over many years from Bill Bowen (Psychophysical Therapy) and Kathy Kain (Somatic Practice).

 

This training has helped tune my high sensitivity to deep grounding and support and to a felt understanding of coherence and movement within a body and between bodies and the environment. Over the past ten years I have been exploring the application of somatic practices to neurodivergent bodies and to trans and gender expansive bodies.

 

I am a founding member of the Neuroqueer Somatics Research Collective, a group of neurodivergent somatic practitioners who are sharing and exploring embodied practices.

Learn more about Psycho Physical Therapy

Learn more about Somatic Practice

Good Faith Estimate Notice

You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical and mental health care will cost.

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Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services. 

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You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services.

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You can ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service.

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If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.

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For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call (800) 985-3059.

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