My Approach

I am a psychotherapist who uses a variety of powerful evidence-based methods such as neurofeedback, hypnotherapy, mindfulness, and other practices and tools that work directly on the nervous system (which includes the brain and the body) in addition to using the language-based methods used in “talk” therapy. To support your success on your Life Journey, I provide a safe, comfortable environment for re-training your brain for happiness and success.  Our work together is aimed at helping you get your brain and nervous system from dysregulated to regulated and healthy, and from there to optimal functioning. Imagine being free from the disempowering thoughts, actions, behaviors and beliefs that lead to unhappy, dysfunctional, unsatisfying lives.

We could all use the kind of emotional resilience demonstrated by people who are able to find happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, and even joy through even the most harrowing circumstances of life. However, most people who come to me are feeling anxious, unsure, unresourceful, deeply dissatisfied, and often hopeless.  I will help you build a resilient life by accessing and strengthening fundamental resources like sleep, attention, strength under stress, mood regulation, and physical health.  Then we can turn to thoughts, language, beliefs and the familiar “top down/talk therapy” elements of “mental health.”  The process is straightforward –

Step 1: Identify, regulate and stabilize aspects of the nervous system that are dysregulated.

Step 2: Learn new ways to use the nervous system to, where possible, solve rather than merely manage mental health and happiness.

Step 3: Solidify and cement these new learnings into behaviors, belief systems and thinking/talking patterns that are powerful and permanent, and which serve you in creating your desired life.

 Regardless of gender, race, sex, spiritual path, or age,  all “mental health” emerges from the body and brain – what we call the “nervous system.” I approach therapy with the view that it is very limiting to treat our “thoughts” as being manifest only through language and words, when in fact our Self must include the physical body. Depression, anxiety, ADHD and so many other mental health conditions have their fundamental basis in dysregulated functioning of the nervous system. The nervous system can be dysregulated by all sorts of factors and events that have happened to our bodies and minds. In turn, those disturbances drive our brain’s emotional and thought processes.  It is not possible to separate our thoughts and behaviors from our bodies/nervous system. And for many people, thinking and talking about our thoughts and emotions is extremely difficult because of the dysregulation of the nervous system.

Every brain/nervous system requires something unique and specific to help it balance itself. Using brain science tools such as EEG, we don’t have to guess about which part of the brain is dysregulated. We can see and measure the dysregulation in terms of brain function, not just behavior and emotion.  We can then design ways to get the nervous system functioning better. Together we will discover and map the areas that are dysregulated, and then use a combination of brain science interventions and other proven methods to access learning (both verbal and non-verbal) and your own inner resources for change. 

After completing hundreds of brain maps and thousands of brain training sessions, I am more confident than ever of the effectiveness and power of neurofeedback training as a foundational step in recovering and enhancing mental health. We will talk about what you eat, how you sleep, how you relate to other people, and lots of coaching in techniques you can use every day  – to lay the foundation for much more effective “talk” therapy. And of course we will talk about your story, and the life you are creating from here on out.

About Me

After a long career in law, and a lifelong passion for the workings of the mind, I returned to school to complete a Master of Social Work degree and am currently a pre-licensed professional in Virginia. I provide primarily in-person neurofeedback training, as well as neurofeedback home training for clients who would best benefit from that approach.  I also provide in-person and virtual sessions for hypnotherapy, meditation, yoga nidra, and talk therapy practice as part of an integrated approach to the whole person.