Trauma is stored in the body, not just the mind. Drawing from Alchemical Alignment, Somatic Experiencing (SE), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Polyvagal Theory, I integrate somatic awareness and nervous system regulation techniques to help you:

• Recognize and understand body signals and sensations

• Expand your window of tolerance for difficult emotions and experiences

• Honor freeze states as protective responses, not failures

• Work with the pace of thawing—inviting gentle warmth rather than forcing premature processing

• Complete interrupted survival responses (fight/flight/freeze/fawn)

• Develop embodied presence and felt safety

Trauma-informed principles guide this work: we understand that freeze states come as protection, like winter covering the earth. We don't rush spring. We cultivate safety and warmth slowly, allowing your system to signal when it's ready for gentle thawing so frozen affect can move and vitality can return.

Our work together explores not just symptoms but underlying patterns, unconscious dynamics, and the meaning you make of your experiences. I draw from:

• Attachment theory to understand relational patterns

• Psychodynamic concepts for insight into unconscious processes

• Jungian approaches for working with dreams, symbols, and shadow

• Myth and archetypal psychology to understand your story within larger patterns

Dreams are the soul's language. When you bring dreams to our work, we explore them as messages from your unconscious—symbolic maps of what's seeking integration, what parts need attention, and what wisdom is trying to emerge.

Our earliest relationships shape how we relate to ourselves and others. I work from an attachment lens to:

• Understand how early relational patterns show up in your present relationships

• Provide a corrective relational experience through the therapeutic relationship

• Work with attachment wounds and repair developmental trauma

• Build secure attachment patterns through consistent, attuned presence

An evidence-based therapy for processing traumatic memories and disturbing life experiences. EMDR helps the brain reprocess stuck memories so they no longer carry the same emotional charge or trigger the same nervous system responses. Through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or audio), we work to:

• Process traumatic memories that continue to impact your present

• Reduce flashbacks, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts

• Reprocess negative beliefs about yourself formed during trauma

• Complete interrupted fight/flight/freeze responses

EMDR is effective for single-incident trauma, complex trauma, anxiety, and attachment wounds.

Sometimes words aren't enough, or the trauma happened before you had language. I integrate:

Art Therapy: Using visual art materials to express, explore, and process experiences that are difficult to verbalize. Art accesses different parts of the brain than talk therapy and can bypass cognitive defenses.

Sand Tray Therapy: A powerful tool for accessing unconscious material, working with inner child parts, and creating symbolic representations of your inner world. Particularly effective for pre-verbal and developmental trauma.

These modalities are especially helpful for:

• Accessing pre-verbal or procedural memories

• Working with parts that can't or won't speak in words

• Bypassing intellectualization or over-analysis

• Creating safe distance while processing difficult material

Our psyche is naturally multiple, we all have different aspects of ourselves with different needs, feelings, and perspectives. In parts work, we:

• Identify protective parts (the ones trying to keep you safe, even in ways that no longer serve)

• Connect with wounded or exiled parts (often younger versions of you carrying pain)

• Strengthen your core self—the centered, compassionate part that can hold all the others

• Facilitate internal communication and healing between parts

This approach is particularly effective for complex trauma, internal conflict, and fragmentation.

For clients who are interested and appropriate, I integrate nature-based and animal-assisted interventions. Horses and the natural world are non-judgmental beings who provide immediate biofeedback about your nervous system state and relational patterns. This approach can be particularly powerful for:

• Clients who feel stuck in talk therapy

• Highly sensitive people who connect deeply with animals and nature

• Working with trust, boundaries, and co-regulation

• Embodied healing and nervous system regulation

Sessions take place at Walk Intuit Inc. in Costa Mesa, CA.