With respect to couples therapy, I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). EFT is a well-established form of therapy created by Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg, that is one of the few empirically supported treatments for couples therapy. EFT helps couples by strengthening their attachment bonds resulting in a more secure and safe connection with each other. EFT helps couples navigate their negative interaction patterns by de-escalating conflict, slowing things down and working with couples to help them express how they think and feel about each other. We will work together to resolve relationship distress by deepening your understanding of what is going on beneath the surface of your conflict and help you to connect in a more respectful and loving manner.

EFT typically unfolds in three key stages:

1. De-escalation – Identifying and reducing negative interaction cycles, such as blame or withdrawal, that fuel conflict and disconnection.

2. Restructuring interactions – Helping partners express vulnerable emotions and unmet needs more openly, creating space for new, supportive ways of relating.

3. Consolidation – Reinforcing these new emotional patterns and strengthening trust, so couples can maintain connection and navigate future challenges together.

Emotional engagement is central to EFT—it focuses on the emotions beneath behaviors, encouraging people to connect from a place of authenticity and need rather than defensiveness. Through empathy and validation, individuals begin to feel truly heard, which creates space for healing and trust.

The therapist’s role is active and supportive, guiding emotional conversations, slowing down reactive patterns, and helping partners or family members stay present with each other in meaningful ways.

In addition to EFT, I also work with Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), which adapts EFT to help individuals process emotions and heal from past experiences in a secure attachment framework, and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT), which focuses specifically on restoring emotional connection and intimacy in couples by addressing distressing interaction patterns.

EFT has proven highly effective for couples and individuals facing relationship stress, emotional distance, or the effects of past trauma. It leads to stronger bonds, better communication, and a deeper sense of emotional security. It helps strengthen emotional bonds, deepen understanding between partners, and improve communication. By breaking negative cycles and fostering emotional responsiveness, it can lead to greater relationship satisfaction, intimacy, and long-term stability.

ACT is a therapeutic approach that combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness strategies to help individuals develop psychological flexibility and lead more meaningful lives. The focus is on accepting difficult emotions and thoughts, rather than avoiding or trying to change them, and acting in alignment with personal values, even in the face of discomfort.

Six Core Processes of ACT:

ACT is built around six key processes that help develop psychological flexibility:

1. Cognitive Defusion: Detaching from unhelpful thoughts.

2. Acceptance: Opening up to and allowing painful emotions.

3. Present Moment Awareness (Mindfulness): Cultivating awareness of the present.

4. Self-as-Context: Viewing oneself as more than thoughts and emotions.

5. Values Clarification: Connecting with what truly matters in life.

6. Committed Action: Taking steps in line with values, even in the face of challenges.

Role of the Therapist in ACT:

The therapist guides clients in identifying values, increasing mindfulness, and accepting difficult emotions. The goal is for clients to develop skills for managing their mental health independently.

Benefits of ACT:

Improved emotional regulation: Better handling of emotions without being overwhelmed.

Enhanced well-being: Living according to values leads to greater satisfaction and fulfillment.

Increased psychological flexibility: Becoming more resilient in the face of stress and challenges.

Reduced symptoms: ACT helps alleviate symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and chronic pain by changing how individuals relate to their internal experiences.

ACT fosters a meaningful life by teaching individuals to accept their thoughts and emotions, act in alignment with their values, and develop psychological flexibility. Rather than focusing on eliminating distress, it changes how people relate to it, helping them live authentically and in accordance with their core desires.

is a trauma-focused psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It helps individuals process and heal from traumatic memories and emotional distress. While particularly effective for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), EMDR is also used to treat anxiety, depression, phobias, and other emotional challenges.

The core principle of EMDR is that unprocessed traumatic memories can become “stuck” in the brain, continuously affecting a person’s mental health, behavior, and emotional well-being. By helping to reprocess these memories, EMDR reduces their emotional charge, allowing individuals to heal and regain functioning in their daily lives.

How EMDR Works:

The exact mechanisms of EMDR are not fully understood, but several key theories explain its effectiveness:

Bilateral Stimulation & REM Sleep: One theory suggests that the bilateral stimulation (often through eye movements) used in EMDR mimics the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase. REM is known to play a role in memory consolidation and emotional processing, helping the brain integrate emotional experiences and reduce their intensity. By stimulating this natural processing system, EMDR helps make traumatic memories less distressing.

Dual Attention: Another theory is that focusing on both the traumatic memory and external stimulation (such as eye movements) helps the brain process the memory from a more distanced perspective, reducing emotional reactivity.

Cognitive & Emotional Shifts: EMDR also facilitates cognitive and emotional shifts, allowing individuals to reframe negative beliefs about their trauma. This process promotes emotional relief and the adoption of healthier, more adaptive beliefs, which can lead to improved self-esteem and a better sense of self.

Effectiveness of EMDR:

EMDR has been extensively researched and is recognized as an effective treatment for PTSD by organizations like the American Psychological Association (APA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Studies show that EMDR can significantly reduce trauma symptoms, and many individuals experience lasting healing from trauma. In addition to PTSD, EMDR has been found helpful in treating anxiety, depression, phobias, grief, and addictions.

is a parent-based treatment program designed to help children and adolescents who suffer from anxiety disorders, OCD, or related challenges — without requiring the child to participate directly in therapy.

SPACE was developed at the Yale Child Study Center by Dr. Eli Lebowitz. It’s based on research showing that parents can play a powerful role in either maintaining or helping reduce their child’s anxiety symptoms.

The program teaches parents how to:

• Recognize and reduce “accommodations” they make to their child’s anxiety (e.g., giving constant reassurance, helping a child avoid anxiety-provoking situations, or adjusting routines to prevent distress).
• Respond supportively to their child’s anxiety — showing empathy while maintaining clear boundaries.
• Set and maintain healthy expectations and limits, even when a child is distressed.
• Handle tantrums or distress effectively without giving in to anxious behaviors.
• Communicate confidence in the child’s ability to cope, rather than unintentionally reinforcing helplessness.

Key Principles:

• Parental behavior change is the treatment focus — not the child’s.
• Reducing family accommodation is central.
• Anxiety is treated by changing the child’s environment (especially the way parents respond).
• The approach can be effective even if the child refuses therapy.

Who is it for?

Parents of children (typically ages 6–17) with anxiety disorders, selective mutism, separation anxiety, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, OCD, or related issues.

It’s especially helpful when a child refuses therapy, or therapy hasn’t worked.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, goal-oriented form of psychotherapy that helps people identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.

Core Idea: The way you think (cognitions), the way you feel (emotions), and the way you act (behaviors) are all connected. If you change one, you can influence the others.

CBT teaches how to recognize negative or distorted thinking patterns (like catastrophizing or all-or-nothing thinking)

• How to challenge and reframe unhelpful thoughts
• How to develop more balanced thinking
• How to change behaviors that reinforce anxiety, depression, or other difficulties
• Practical tools like exposure exercises, thought records, and behavioral experiments

CBT is effective for a wide range of conditions, including anxiety disorders, depression, OCD, PTSD, eating disorders, insomnia, chronic pain, and more

The Gottman Method is a science-based approach to couples therapy developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, grounded in decades of research on what makes relationships succeed or fail. The method helps couples strengthen their connection, manage conflict more effectively, and build a relationship based on trust, respect, and shared meaning. Central to the Gottman Method is the “Sound Relationship House” theory, which emphasizes key elements like emotional attunement, friendship, conflict management, and shared purpose.

Level 1 of the Gottman Method training is called “Bridging the Couple Chasm.” It provides a solid foundation in the Gottman framework, primarily aimed at therapists and helping professionals. Participants learn to identify destructive communication patterns—like criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling (known as the “Four Horsemen”)—and to begin using tools to help couples improve their friendship, enhance intimacy, and manage conflict with more skill. It introduces practical strategies such as building “Love Maps,” fostering fondness and admiration, turning toward rather than away from bids for connection, and using gentle start-ups during disagreements.

Level 2, titled “Assessment, Intervention, and Co-Morbidities,” goes deeper into clinical application. Therapists learn how to conduct full relationship assessments using Gottman tools like the Relationship Checkup and structured interviews. They are taught how to intervene more precisely with couples who are stuck in negative cycles, helping them repair past hurts, increase emotional responsiveness, and create rituals of connection. Level 2 also addresses how to support couples facing more complex challenges, such as infidelity, trauma, addiction, and mental health difficulties. It includes analysis of actual recorded therapy sessions with the Gottmans, offering real-life examples of how the method is applied.

Together, Levels 1 and 2 provide a thorough introduction to the Gottman approach, from foundational theory to clinical practice, enabling therapists to begin applying the method with couples in a supportive and structured way.

Narrative Therapy is a collaborative, non-pathologizing form of therapy that helps individuals, couples, or families view their problems as separate from themselves. Developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980s, it’s based on the idea that people make sense of their lives through stories, and those stories shape their identity, choices, and relationships.

The therapist works with the client to explore the dominant story they’re living by. It is often shaped by social, cultural, or family influences and how that story may be limiting them. For example, someone might live by a story that they’re “not good enough,” or that they’re “always anxious.” Narrative Therapy helps people deconstruct these limiting narratives and create alternative stories that are more empowering and aligned with their values, strengths, and intentions.

Key techniques include externalizing the problem (“the problem is the problem, not the person”), re-authoringpreferred narratives, and identifying unique outcomes or exceptions—moments when the problem didn’t dominate. The therapist takes a curious, collaborative stance, positioning the client as the expert in their own life.

Narrative Therapy is especially powerful for individuals who feel stuck in self-defeating labels, including those dealing with trauma, mental health issues, or social marginalization. It’s widely used in individual, family, and community contexts and respects cultural identity, personal agency, and meaning-making.

Family Therapy (also known as Family Systems Therapy) is a type of therapy that focuses on the family as a whole system, rather than just individual members. It’s based on the belief that problems within a family are best understood in the context of family dynamics, communication patterns, and roles, rather than as issues of one person alone.

This approach doesn’t assign blame but instead looks at how interactions and relationships within the family might contribute to or maintain a problem. A change in one part of the system (one person’s behavior or role) affects the rest of the system, so therapy often aims to create healthier patterns of interaction that benefit everyone.

There are many types of family therapy models, including Structural Family Therapy (which looks at family hierarchies and boundaries), Strategic Family Therapy (which focuses on communication and problem-solving patterns), and Bowenian Family Therapy (which explores emotional systems across generations). The therapist helps families improve communication, resolve conflicts, support each other better, and understand how past and present relationships influence their current challenges.

Family Therapy can be helpful for a wide range of concerns—such as parenting struggles, behavioral problems in children or teens, divorce, grief, mental health issues, or addiction—where the whole family’s involvement can lead to more lasting change than working with just one person.