I help people restore a sense of safety after difficult events.

I work with individuals who have lived through a wide range of traumatic and stressful events.

For instance, I have worked with survivors of torture, of childhood sexual and physical abuse, accidents and other medical trauma, immigration trauma, intergenerational trauma, and relational trauma.

As a white American, I am committed to understanding the legacy of slavery, genocide, and oppression on Black, indigenous, and other people of color in this country and elsewhere. I understand racism to be an act of structural violence and necessarily traumatic to its survivors. I also understand racism to be detrimental and limiting to white Americans.

Trauma-informed care means starting where you are.

Sometimes people come into therapy with the specific purpose of talking about a difficult or traumatic thing that has happened to them. Other times, this terrible thing is hardly spoken of at the beginning of treatment but gradually becomes more bearable over the course of our work together.

I enjoy working with both types of patients: those who are ready to dive right in, and those for whom it takes a little longer.

My approach is guided by research in adverse childhood experiences, child and lifespan development, psychoanalysis, and attachment theory.

Research influences

Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks. Grove press.

Harris, A., Kalb, M., & Klebanoff, S. (2016). Ghosts in the consulting room. Taylor & Francis.

Harris, A., Kalb, M., & Klebanoff, S. (Eds.). (2016). Demons in the consulting room: Echoes of genocide, slavery and extreme trauma in psychoanalytic practice. Routledge.

Linehan, M. (1993). Cognitive behavioral therapy for borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford.

Najavits, L. (2002). Seeking safety: A treatment manual for PTSD and substance abuse. Guilford Publications.

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. Penguin UK.

Wisdom from fiction & memoir

Baldwin, J. (2016). Giovanni's room. Everyman's Library.

Barker, P. (1991). The Regeneration Trilogy. Viking Press.

Desplechin, A. (Director). (2013). Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian. Why Not Productions.

James, M. (2009). The book of night women. Riverhead Books.

Oz, A. (2002). A tale of love and darkness. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Silko, L. M. (2006). Ceremony. Penguin.

St Aubyn, E. (2006). Some hope: A Patrick Melrose novel. Picador.