What I Help With

Body Shame & Disordered Eating

When we struggle with body shame and disordered eating, they tend to take up an immense amount of space in our brain. Whatever your body size, I can introduce you to concepts from Health At Every Size®, Body Trust®, and fat liberation, and help you forge a kind, trusting relationship with your body, and a peaceful relationship with food.

I especially love supporting those in fat bodies and those who struggle with binge eating. (And in case it’s not already clear, I use the word “fat” in a reclaimed sense! There is no shame in being fat!)

Trauma, PTSD & Shame

My clients are often people who’ve experienced relational traumas (i.e., traumas that happened in the context of relationships, such as neglect and abuse) and/or developmental traumas (i.e., traumas that happened during childhood).

These experiences often lead to a type of trauma known as “complex trauma” or “C-PTSD”. Intense shame is often a key feature, as well as having a cruel inner critic and feeling worthless. Symptoms like depression and anxiety can also be underpinned by trauma and my work can also help with these.

Chronic Illness & Pain

I live with both chronic illness and chronic pain due to a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I know the misogyny, hostility, disinterest, gaslighting, and fatphobia that occur routinely within the medical system, and the tolls these can take on mental health—as if the tolls of living with pain and illness aren’t enough!

I am here to accompany you in your experiences of chronic illness and chronic pain. We can explore the emotional impacts (like grief, anger, sadness), process experiences of disability and ableism, and help you find moments of contentment and joy despite bodily obstacles.

Additional Concerns

While the above issues are specialties of mine, I can support you with many other concerns, including depression, anxiety, life transitions.

I start each counseling relationship with a free consultation call. Together we’ll explore what’s bringing you to therapy. If for any reason you need support that I think will be better offered by another clinician, I will point you to some of my colleagues who have relevant expertise.

Special Populations I Love Working With

Two people with different skin tones interacting with each other with smiles on their faces and brightly colored clothing and hair

  • Fat people / plus-sized people
    I aim to create a safe haven where you can be free from anti-fat bias while you pursue whatever your therapeutic goals are.

  • Highly intelligent / gifted people
    Intelligence testing has a troublesome legacy littered with racism and rooted in eugenics, and “gifted” is an unfortunate term. But despite imperfect measures and harmful history, certain people experience a complexity of thought beyond the norm. It doesn’t make anyone better or worse than anyone else, but it can lead to qualitatively different experiences in the world. I have trained with Intergifted to study the psychology of gifted people.

  • “Self-aware”, insightful people
    My work can be particularly helpful for people who are “self-aware” and insightful about why they are the way they are, but are still struggling with certain beliefs, behaviors, or symptoms. There is a difference between knowing how to do things differently in your head and undoing the emotional schemas that keep you stuck.

  • Intellectualizers & emotion-avoiders
    If you know that you tend to get caught in intellectualization, and/or other ways of avoiding your feelings, my approach can be a great help. One of my goals is to help you move past whatever methods you use to defend against feelings and instead touch into your actual emotional experiences.

  • Psychotherapists
    It can be hard to seek therapy as a therapist. I think my style of depth-oriented, experiential work is perfect for therapists because it’s not about what you know — it’s about getting to have healing experiences in a safe container.