Evidence-Based Relationship & Sex Therapy

Welcome

I’m Em, an identity-affirming queer clinical psychologist who specializes in working with couples and relationships of all kinds.

I focus on empowering you to have the most effective, connected, and creative relationships possible.

My style is empathic, transparent, accepting, and humorous. I believe in being direct and genuine in therapy, and am skilled at finding the motivation and courage that will help you overcome obstacles that are holding you back.

If you need someone to gently hold you accountable with ample support to bolster you against barriers to change, we could be a great fit.

My specialties include:

  • Communication difficulties

  • Conflict Resolution

  • Breaking relationship patterns

  • Reconnection & deepening emotional intimacy

  • Sexual functioning & intimacy

  • Effective relationship agreements & boundaries

  • Healing from codependency patterns, trauma, destructive relationships, & abuse

  • Decisions around opening, changing, or ending relationships

  • Building self-worth & a meaningful life

  • Chronic shame, guilt, and emptiness

  • Life transitions & stress

  • Identity concerns (e.g., discrimination, stigma, societal messaging, & internalized shame)

  • Understanding & accepting your sexuality, gender, and/or sexual interests

Therapy with me

I work as hard as you do to enact change in your relationships and create new ways of seeing and shifting things.

In my mind, therapy is an investment where you must see movement forward and tangible change to your life.

Therapy with me is centered on you and the ways you want to change.

Each person who comes into my office is unique, and I find it an honor to be able to get to know you as the full person you are with your own set of experiences, values, needs, and strengths. Your path does not have to look like someone else’s! I want to help you hone what truly matters to you and embody the type of person (and partner) that you wish to be.

I will help you with the awareness and tools to show up as the best version of yourself and build the most meaningful life for yourself. Therapy will involve laughter, play, growth, struggle, and opening up to new ideas and ways of coping.

It’s very important to me that you feel safe and comfortable enough to open up about topics that are hard to share – and I work hard to adapt that space for you.

Take the first step to building a more joyful and meaningful life.

My Training & Approach

I earned my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from John Jay College/City University of New York, and completed my internship and postdoctoral training at the VA San Diego Healthcare System/UCSD consortium.

My training has focused particularly in areas of trauma, interpersonal abuse, codependency, and treatment for navigating difficult emotions and stress in relationships with others. I have engaged in in depth, specialized training in evidence based treatments for couples including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT), and Cognitive Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT). For individual work, I have received thorough training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as well as several well established sex therapies including Sensate Focus.

I work from a trauma-informed, anti-racist, identity-affirming, anti-shaming approach. I am sex positive, LGBTQIA+ affirming, ENM-affirming, and kink-friendly. I do my best to make sure that your identities are prioritized at the level of importance that they feel to you, that your identities help provide context, but are not made to be “the problem” in therapy. I know how difficult it is to come to therapy having to help your therapist understand something that you experience. It’s my aim to make sure that therapy is not a place where you’ll feel burdened by overexplaining or educating me about your identities. It is important to me to stay educated and informed in order to make sure that the focus of therapy is hearing you out and understanding you to the best of my ability. Therapy is a great place to repair and heal from difficulties and misunderstandings that give us new information about ourselves, and I’m very responsive to feedback.