How I work
The center of my work is identity – how it is built, how it stops fitting, and how it gets rebuilt. The questions that bring people to me are rarely about symptoms. They are about authorship: who is writing your life right now, and whether you still recognize the hand.
Symptoms do surface along the way, and we address them. I work integratively – EMDR, CBT, EFT, psychodynamic and existential tools – depending on what a given stage of the work requires.
What I want you to know before we start: you are not starting from zero. You arrive with far more assets of identity than you can currently see. We will find them – and then comes the real work: deciding, deliberately, what the next version of you is built from, and building it.
Sessions are 90 minutes. I arrived at this format over the years – it's simply where the results were, and still are. Fifty minutes tends to end right as the real subject enters the room. Ninety gives it time to unfold – and to land.
Sessions are $550 for 90 minutes. I don't accept insurance and don't provide superbills. As required by law, you'll receive a Good Faith Estimate of costs before we begin.
I work Tuesday through Sunday, mostly afternoons and evenings – because that's when my clients' lives actually allow it. Monday is my day off.
Some things can't wait for the next regular slot – an audition, a meeting, a decision. Urgent sessions, and sessions on my day off, are available at 150% of the standard fee, based on availability. If your work makes such situations likely, we'll talk through it in advance, so you know what to realistically expect.
Everything said in session is protected under HIPAA and California law. If your situation calls for an additional NDA, I will sign one – drafted in line with the standards of the profession, around the exceptions no licensed therapist can waive: duty to protect, duty to report.
I work online, over Zoom, on a HIPAA-compliant account. California licensing law requires that you be physically located in California at the time of each session. You'll also need to be alone in the room – confidentiality works both ways – and on a stable internet connection: this is deep work, and it shouldn't be interrupted by a frozen screen.
It starts with an email – one I read myself, at a HIPAA-compliant address no one else can access. Write me a letter that answers four things:
What brings you to therapy – and why now?
Have you worked with a therapist before – what worked, what didn't?
Confirm the format works for you – 90 minutes, the rate, private pay, no superbills or insurance – and that you're 18 or older and will be in California for our sessions.
What made you write to me specifically?
There are no right answers. I read everything myself and reply within 24–48 hours – also myself.
If I can see from your letter that I'm not the right person for what you're facing, I'll write you back and say so – with resources that may serve you better.
If your letter looks like a potential fit, I'll suggest a brief video call – fifteen minutes, no charge, over HIPAA-compliant Zoom. This call is not the beginning of therapy and does not create a therapeutic relationship. I'll ask the questions responsible practice requires before taking someone on: your legal name, your health, your history, what you've been through and what you're carrying now. Direct questions – I ask them of everyone. And we'll both see whether we're the right fit to work together. Fit goes both ways. If I'm not the right person for what you're carrying, I'll say so directly – and point you toward someone who is, when I can.
If we decide to move forward, you'll receive the intake paperwork to complete before we meet – so that the first session is spent on you, not on forms. That first session is a full ninety-minute intake: your history, your current situation, and what you want this work to change. It's a working session at the standard fee.
This practice is not a crisis resource. If you are in crisis or immediate danger, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room.
At the very beginning of my journey, as a trainee, I saw clients for free. Then, as an associate, I worked at a very reduced rate for quite a while. Counterintuitive, "not good for business" – but those years let me work with people at every stage of a professional life, not just the established ones. I saw everything: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Many deeply talented people, at very different points of their climb.
To this day, I keep a few spots at a reduced rate, dedicated to those who need identity-level work but can't afford the full fee. You will receive the same work, at the same depth, in the same 90-minute format – not a lighter version. And it is identity work: if what you're facing right now is an acute crisis, this format isn't the right level of care, and I'll point you toward what is.
The reduced rate is for the season when you need it. If, during our work, your financial situation improves, we'll revisit your rate – to a higher reduced rate or to the full rate, depending on where you are – and we'll talk about it openly, the way we'll talk about everything else.
If this is you, write me the same letter – the four questions above, plus a fifth: what session fee is realistic for you right now. The path is the same as for everyone: the letter, the call, and a mutual decision about fit. If all reduced-rate spots are taken, I'll offer to place you on the waitlist.