About

A licensed psychologist in Austin, Texas, I help adults find healing and wholeness by accepting and collaborating with each individual, no matter what challenges they are facing in their lives. I demystify psychological treatment, offering both psychotherapy and testing, creating a place for growth, breakthroughs, and empowerment.

I favor a psychoanalytic approach to psychotherapy, an approach that helps individuals identify the roots of issues and long-term patterns. I also offer other techniques and strategies, including those used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) depending on my clients’ unique needs.

In psychotherapy, I specialize in:

  • Anxiety and Stress:
    • Perfectionism – when you feel pressure to do your best. All. Of. The. Time!!
    • Generalized anxiety: a pervasive feeling of worry about many different things happening in your life.
    • Stress: any time you feel overwhelmed by something, and you don’t have the resources to cope with whatever the challenge or difficulty is.
    • You know these things shouldn’t bother you and that they don’t need to be so difficult, but you don’t know how to make it better.
  • Challenges at work:
    • Certain rules, procedures or ways you’re required to do things seem to make no sense and are hugely frustrating!
  • Relationships at work or home:
    • You want to stand up for yourself and your goals and priorities.
  • Conflict with your spouse, partner, kids, or parents:
    • You have different ideas of how to do things, or you want to figure out your own identity or goals.

Psychological testing can help with:

  • determining psychological diagnosis.
  • figuring out if ADHD is present.
  • answering questions about one’s emotions, relationships, or functioning in some area of life.
  • pre-surgical evaluations.

I also work with people who are having challenges at the intersection of mental and physical health (an area called “health psychology”).

I received my Doctoral and Master’s degrees from The University of Texas at Austin and my undergraduate training at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. I have completed, and continue to attend, advanced training from national and international experts in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychological testing, including collaborative assessment. I also completed the two-year Studies in Adult Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (also called “psychoanalytic psychotherapy”) program through the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, an organization accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association.

I have been in private practice since 2003. I began my career as a staff psychologist working with adults and young people at the Austin State Hospital, an inpatient psychiatric hospital. I have also worked in a variety of other settings, including outpatient mental health clinics, counseling centers, medical clinics, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. I also spent more than 11 years reviewing mental/emotional disability applications for the Social Security Administration. I have also served on the boards of several local professional associations, including the Capital Area Psychological Association and the Austin Society for Psychoanalytic Association (now called “Austin Psychoanalytic”).

Contact me today to set up an appointment so you can feel confident and more hopeful about life. I want to help you with whatever you’re facing. Call me at 512-627-3583 to set up a time to meet in person or virtually.