FAQs

Therapy

What type of therapy do you provide?

I specialize in individual therapy for driven, ambitious women whose lives look impressive from the outside and feel exhausting, hollow, or quietly painful from the inside. My approach integrates EMDR, attachment-based therapy, and somatic work—all designed for the specific intersection of relational trauma and external success. Here’s what makes this different from most therapy: we’re not adding coping strategies to a life that’s built on shaky ground. We’re repairing the proverbial foundation underneath it—your core neural pathways, emotional regulation patterns, and the beliefs about yourself that were installed before you were old enough to question them. So the life you’ve worked so hard to build—the career, the family, the home—can actually feel good to live inside, not just impressive to look at.

How is therapy different from coaching?

Therapy is foundation work. We’re going into the basement of that proverbial house of life you’ve built—the place where your earliest relationships taught you that achievement was safer than vulnerability, that your worth had to be earned daily, that needing someone was a liability. We process those early experiences, give your nervous system new information about what’s actually safe now, and develop emotional regulation that doesn’t require white-knuckling through your days. This is clinical, healthcare-level work. Coaching is for women whose foundation already feels relatively steady—who want to optimize how they lead and perform without the constant hum of survival running underneath. If your patterns feel bigger than strategy can solve—if you’re lying awake running worst-case scenarios about a conversation that hasn’t happened yet, or your teenager’s eye roll sends your whole nervous system into overdrive—therapy is where you start.

Do you accept insurance?

I operate as a private-pay practice, which means I don’t directly bill insurance. I can provide detailed superbills that many clients successfully submit for out-of-network reimbursement. This matters because it means no insurance company decides what your treatment should look like, how many sessions you get, or which methods I can use. Your healing process is designed entirely around what you need—not what an algorithm approves.

How long does therapy typically take?

The honest answer: it depends on your history, your goals, and how your nervous system responds to the work. Some women notice meaningful shifts within months—the 3 AM anxiety quiets, the reactivity with their partner softens, they stop rehearsing conversations in the shower before they’ve happened. Others do deeper foundation work over a year or more because they’re addressing patterns that have been running since childhood. What I can tell you is this: my clients aren’t looking for band-aids. They want the kind of change where the marriage actually gets easier—not because they’ve learned another communication technique, but because their nervous system has genuinely updated its threat assessment. Where they parent differently—not because they read another book, but because the old surge that comes from somewhere much older than their children now has a breath of space around it.

What can I expect in our first session?

Our first session is about understanding your story—not the LinkedIn version, the real one. I’ll ask about your relationships, your family, the patterns you’ve noticed, the moments where your reaction feels wildly out of proportion to the situation. We’ll start mapping how your earliest experiences might be running your current life—why you can manage a department but freeze when someone asks what you need, why rest feels dangerous, why your chest tightens before certain conversations even though you’ve never been in physical danger. My goal is for you to leave feeling deeply seen—not diagnosed, not pathologized, but genuinely understood—with clarity about how we’d work together and real hope about what’s possible.

Do you offer online therapy sessions?

Yes. I offer secure video sessions, and research consistently shows they’re just as effective as in-person work for the kind of therapy I do. Most of my clients are women with demanding professional lives who appreciate doing this work without adding a commute to an already full schedule.

What is relational trauma, and how do I know if I have it?

Relational trauma happens when your earliest relationships—the ones that were supposed to teach you that connection is safe, predictable, and nurturing—taught you something different instead. It doesn’t require obvious abuse or neglect. It can come from well-meaning parents who were emotionally unavailable, inconsistent, overwhelmed, or critical. From growing up in a home where love felt conditional on performance. From learning early that your job was to manage everyone else’s emotions while no one managed yours. Here’s how it tends to show up in driven women: you can negotiate a seven-figure deal but can’t tell your partner you’re hurt. You read every text five times looking for hidden criticism. Perfectionism runs your life but never satisfies. Rest feels dangerous—like if you stop, something will fall apart. You’re the one everyone calls in a crisis and the one who has no idea who she’d call at 2 AM. Your body—the jaw clenching, the insomnia, the digestive issues—keeps signaling despite doing ‘all the right things.’ If you’re reading this thinking ‘that’s me,’ it probably is. And you’re not alone—you’re responding to patterns that made perfect sense once upon a time.

What makes your approach different from other therapists?

Most therapists either understand trauma but don’t recognize how it functions in people who’ve built impressive lives, or they understand achievement but miss the trauma patterns driving it. I specialize in that specific intersection—the place where a woman can save other people’s children in the ER but lies awake wondering if she’s failing her own. Where she can pitch to investors but can’t have a vulnerable conversation with her partner without her hands shaking. I understand how early relational experiences teach us that achievement is safer than closeness—and how to address those patterns while honoring the brilliant strategies that got you here. I will never ask you to trade in your ambition. Your drive isn’t the problem. The exhausting, compulsive relationship to achievement—the one that keeps you performing your life instead of living it—that’s what we’ll address.

Can I do both therapy and coaching with you?

We typically focus on one at a time. If you’re dealing with trauma patterns—if your reactions feel bigger than the situation warrants, if your nervous system is running childhood programs in adult settings—therapy is the starting point. It’s the foundation work. Once that proverbial foundation feels steadier—once your nervous system has genuinely updated and you’re no longer white-knuckling through your days—coaching can help you optimize how you lead and perform from a more grounded place. We’ll figure out what makes most sense during consultation.

What if I’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t help?

I hear this constantly. And it makes sense—most therapy isn’t designed for someone who can articulate her patterns with clinical precision but still can’t stop living them. Generic approaches tend to either focus on pathology (which feels wrong, because you’re high-functioning) or stay at the surface (which feels pointless, because you’ve already done the self-help reading). If previous therapy missed the fact that your perfectionism isn’t a productivity problem—it’s a trauma response wearing professional clothing—or the therapist didn’t understand what it’s like to hold everything together while quietly falling apart, this will likely feel different.

Trauma-Informed Executive Coaching

What is trauma-informed executive coaching, and who is it for?

It’s for ambitious women who’ve noticed that the strategies that built their careers—the hypervigilance, the over-preparation, the inability to delegate, the refusal to rest—are now creating the very problems they were designed to prevent. This isn’t generic executive coaching with a mindfulness module bolted on. It’s designed for women who recognize that the boardroom sometimes feels like their childhood kitchen—and want to understand why, and what to do about it.

How is your coaching different from traditional executive coaching?

Traditional executive coaching focuses on skills: delegate better, communicate more clearly, manage your time. And those skills matter. But if you’ve tried that approach and found yourself right back in the same patterns within weeks, there’s a reason: traditional coaching addresses what’s happening at the surface while ignoring what’s driving it from underneath. I help you understand why you need seven drafts when two would do. Why authority figures still make your nervous system spike even when you technically outrank them. Why you over-prepare for every meeting like your competence is on trial—and then dismiss your own contribution the moment it’s over. That tendency to over-function at work? It probably didn’t start at work. Understanding where it started allows for the kind of sustainable change that skills training alone can’t touch.

What types of challenges do you help with?

Leadership development when your leadership style is driven by anxiety rather than vision. Imposter syndrome that persists despite a track record that makes it objectively absurd. Perfectionism that’s slowing you down rather than sharpening your work. Difficulty setting boundaries—saying no to projects that will crush you while your mouth says yes before your brain catches up. Workplace relationships that trigger something ancient and disproportionate. Career transitions that feel paralyzing despite clear opportunity. The inability to rest between projects without immediately filling the space. The pattern of over-delivering and under-charging because your body still runs the old calculus that says if I give less than everything, they’ll leave. We address both the practical challenge and the pattern underneath it.

How long is a typical coaching engagement?

Typically 3–12 months, depending on what you’re working on. Some clients come for focused challenges—preparing for a board presentation, navigating a leadership transition, learning to delegate without the micromanaging that comes from trusting no one but yourself. Others stay longer because the work keeps revealing layers that matter. We’ll determine the right timeline together.

What’s included in your coaching packages?

Regular one-on-one sessions (usually biweekly or monthly), email support between sessions for real-time challenges, relevant assessments, and customized resources tailored to your specific patterns. I also provide accountability—because insight without implementation is just interesting conversation, and you already have plenty of insight.

Do you work with teams or only individuals?

Primarily individuals. The depth of this work—understanding how your earliest relationships show up in your leadership, your negotiation style, your response to conflict—requires the kind of trust and specificity that one-on-one provides. Occasionally I work with small leadership teams when relational dynamics are the core issue.

What if my workplace challenges stem from trauma responses?

This is exactly where my background as a licensed psychotherapist becomes the differentiator. The people-pleasing that makes you say yes to projects you should decline. The conflict avoidance that lets problems fester until they explode. The perfectionism that has you reworking a presentation at midnight. The difficulty with authority that makes every piece of feedback—even positive feedback—feel like a verdict on your fundamental worth. These aren’t skill gaps. They’re relational trauma patterns in professional clothing. My coaching helps you see the pattern, understand where it started, and develop responses that serve the leader you’re becoming instead of the child who learned that survival depended on performing flawlessly.

How do you measure success in coaching?

By the concrete shifts you actually feel—not abstract growth metrics. That might look like: you negotiate your compensation without the familiar knot in your stomach. You take a full week off and your body actually lets you rest. Your team stops walking on eggshells because you’ve learned to give feedback without the old charge behind it. You stop over-preparing and start trusting your expertise. You make a career decision from desire rather than fear—and it’s the first time you can remember doing that. We set clear goals at the start and track what’s actually changing in your life, not just your awareness.

Can coaching help with work-life integration?

Yes—and this is where trauma-informed coaching is fundamentally different from the standard version. Most work-life balance advice assumes the problem is time management or boundaries. But if your nervous system learned early that rest is dangerous and your worth is your output—if stopping feels roughly as safe as skydiving without a parachute—no amount of time-blocking will address it. We go to the pattern underneath, so that rest stops being something you earn and starts being something your body can tolerate.

What’s the difference between coaching and consulting?

I don’t tell you what to do. I help you understand what’s been driving your decisions—often beneath your awareness—so you can make different ones from a more grounded place. The goal is for you to need me less over time, not more.

Masterclasses & Courses

What masterclasses and courses do you offer?

I’m building a library of focused masterclasses and courses designed for driven women who want to understand how relational trauma shows up in their lives—and what to do about it. Each one combines the clinical depth of 15,000+ hours of therapy with the kind of practical application you can use the same week you learn it. These aren’t generic mental health content. They’re built for women whose trauma shows up as achievement, perfectionism, and relational difficulty—not dysfunction. Current and upcoming offerings are listed on my site, and Strong & Stable subscribers hear about new launches first.

Who are these programs designed for?

Women who recognize that early relational experiences created patterns they’re ready to understand and shift. You don’t need a diagnosis or a crisis—you need the honest recognition that your life looks more impressive than it feels, and you’re curious about why. Maybe you’ve read enough self-help to fill a bookshelf and still can’t stop the patterns. Maybe therapy isn’t accessible right now but you want clinical-quality education you can engage with on your own terms, at your own pace, from your own couch.

How are the masterclasses different from therapy?

Masterclasses and courses are educational, not therapeutic. They teach frameworks, build awareness, and give you tools—but they’re not personalized treatment for your specific history. Many women use them alongside therapy to deepen their understanding, or as a first step before deciding whether one-on-one work is right. Think of it this way: therapy is custom foundation repair. Courses are understanding how foundations work in the first place—so you can see your own patterns more clearly, wherever you are in the process.

How long does it take to complete a course?

Each program is self-paced. Masterclasses are typically focused enough to complete in a single sitting or over a weekend. Longer courses are designed to be worked through over several weeks. You’ll have ongoing access—and many women find themselves coming back to specific sections when life delivers the situation the material was describing.

Do I need to be in therapy to take a course?

No. But if the material brings up intense emotional responses—and it might, because good trauma education names things you may have been avoiding—I’d recommend having a qualified therapist as part of your support system. These programs are designed to educate and empower, not to replace personalized clinical care.

Is there community or support with these programs?

I periodically offer live Q&A sessions for participants, and there are opportunities to connect with other women doing this work. If ongoing community and support matter to you, a paid subscription to Strong & Stable on Substack is another way to stay connected between programs.

What if I’m not sure which program is right for me?

Take the quiz first—it’ll show you the specific patterns running underneath your drive and help you understand which areas of foundation work are most relevant. Read a few issues of Strong & Stable to get a sense of my approach. And if you’re still unsure, reach out. I’d rather point you in the right direction than have you guess.

How is this different from other online trauma programs?

Most online trauma content is either too clinical to be actionable or too generic to be useful for someone whose life already looks good on paper. My programs are built from 15,000+ clinical hours with women whose trauma shows up as over-functioning, not under-functioning—women who can run a crisis at work but can’t sit still on a Saturday without her brain finding something to optimize. The approach honors your intelligence, respects your time, and addresses the patterns that standard programs don’t even know to look for.

Can I access course materials on my phone or tablet?

Yes. Everything is accessible on any device—because I know you’re fitting this work into a life that doesn’t slow down just because you’re ready to start healing.

Strong & Stable Substack

What is Strong & Stable?

Strong & Stable is my Substack newsletter—bimonthly essays exploring how relational trauma shapes the inner lives of ambitious women who look like they have it all together. It’s where I write most deeply about the patterns I see across 15,000+ clinical hours: the perfectionism that never satisfies, the relationships that feel harder than the career, the nervous system that treats every Tuesday like a survival event, the gap between what your life looks like and how it actually feels. I share clinical insights (always with confidentiality protected), current research, anonymized client stories that will make you wonder if I’ve been reading your diary, and practical frameworks you can use that week. It’s the closest thing to sitting across from me at my kitchen table.

How is Strong & Stable different from your other content?

This is where I go deepest. Instagram gives you a recognition moment in 30 seconds. Strong & Stable gives you the full framework—the clinical explanation, the anonymized case study, the research, and the practical application—in essays long enough to actually change how you see yourself. It’s my most intimate content offering: the place where clinical sophistication meets kitchen table wisdom in long form. The place where I share things I’ve never written anywhere else.

Is it free or paid?

Both. Free subscribers receive select essays and updates. Paid subscribers get everything—including my most in-depth pieces, personal letters, subscriber-only content, and early access to new offerings. Paid subscriptions directly support my ability to keep writing research-grounded, clinically informed content instead of churning out quick takes that sound nice but don’t change anything.

How often do you publish?

Twice a month—substantial, thoughtful essays. I’d rather give you one piece that makes you pull over in your car because a sentence just rearranged something inside you than ten posts you scroll past and forget.

What topics do you cover?

How relational trauma patterns run the inner lives of ambitious women: perfectionism, people-pleasing, rest resistance, boundary struggles, the relationship between trauma and money, trauma-informed parenting, navigating intimate relationships when your default setting is self-reliance, what happens when the exiled parts of yourself—the resting self, the playful self, the angry self, the wanting self—start asking to come back online. Each essay translates clinical concepts into language you can use at your kitchen table, in your marriage, in your own head at 2 AM when the ceiling has nothing new to offer but your brain won’t stop.

Can I share the essays?

Free content—absolutely, and I love when you do. Paid content is for subscribers only. If an essay lands, the best thing you can do is share the link so someone else can subscribe and have her own moment of ‘how does she know this about me.’

How does Strong & Stable connect to your other offerings?

It’s the hub. Many women discover my therapy and coaching through the newsletter—they read a piece, recognize themselves, and reach out. Course participants subscribe to continue their learning between programs. And for women who aren’t ready for one-on-one work, or who live in a state where I’m not licensed, it’s a way to engage with this material on your own terms, at your own pace. It’s not a sales funnel disguised as content. It’s content that’s genuinely valuable on its own.

Can I pause or cancel anytime?

Yes. Full control through Substack—pause, cancel, or change your subscription level anytime. No commitments, no fees, no guilt.

How do I know if it’s right for me?

If your life looks impressive from the outside but feels exhausting from the inside. If you suspect your early experiences are quietly running your current relationships, your work patterns, or your relationship with yourself. If you’ve never had someone name the patterns you live inside every day with enough specificity that your chest tightens in recognition. Start with the free tier. You’ll know within one essay.

Miscellaneous

How do I know which service is right for me?

If your reactions feel bigger than the situation warrants, if your nervous system is running childhood programs in adult settings, if you’re performing your life instead of living it—therapy. If your foundation already feels relatively steady and you want to stop white-knuckling your professional success—trauma-informed executive coaching. If you want clinical-quality education you can engage with at your own pace—masterclasses and courses. If you want someone naming your patterns in your inbox twice a month—Strong & Stable on Substack. And if you’re not sure, that’s exactly what the consultation is for.

Do you offer consultations?

Yes. A brief consultation helps us figure out fit and direction. It’s a conversation, not a commitment—and for women who’ve spent their lives making sure every decision is perfect before acting, I want you to know that reaching out doesn’t lock you into anything.

What are your rates?

Rates vary by service and are discussed during consultation. I believe in transparency about the investment and will give you clear information to make an informed decision. Payment plans are available for some services.

How do I get started?

Take my quiz first—it takes about five minutes and will show you the invisible patterns running underneath your drive. From there, explore Strong & Stable to experience my approach. Or if you already know one-on-one work is what you need, reach out directly for a therapy or coaching consultation. There’s no wrong entry point.

Do you have a waiting list?

Availability varies. I keep my caseload intentionally small so that every client gets the depth of attention this work requires—because foundation repair doesn’t happen in rushed, surface-level sessions. I’ll share current availability during consultation and discuss options if there’s a wait.

What if I’m not sure I have relational trauma?

Most of the women I work with weren’t sure either—especially when there was no obvious abuse or neglect. Relational trauma is often about what was missing: emotional attunement, consistent safety, love that didn’t have to be earned through performance. It’s growing up in a home where your feelings were inconvenient, where you became the easy child so someone else could be the difficult one, where you learned to read a room before you learned to read a book. If your inner experience doesn’t match your outer achievements—if your impressive life doesn’t feel as good as it looks—it’s worth exploring whether early experiences are playing a role. The quiz is a good place to start.

I’m successful in my career but struggling personally. Can you help?

This is exactly what I specialize in. The patterns that create external success—hypervigilance, perfectionism, self-reliance, emotional control—are often the same patterns making personal life feel impossible. They were brilliant adaptations once. They got you the degrees, the career, the financial security. But the strategy that earned you the promotion isn’t the same strategy that will build a marriage that feels safe, or a relationship with yourself that isn’t punishing, or the ability to sit on a couch without mentally reorganizing the pantry. We repair the proverbial psychological foundation—the neural pathways, the emotional regulation patterns, the core beliefs—so everything you’ve built can feel as good to live inside as it looks from the outside. And we reopen the rooms you locked along the way—the resting self, the playful self, the angry self, the wanting self—so you stop living from one narrow, approved slice of who you are.

Do you work with people of all genders?

Yes. While much of my content centers women’s experiences—because that’s where the majority of my 15,000+ clinical hours have been concentrated—my methods and expertise apply regardless of gender identity. I work with anyone who resonates with this approach and is healing relational trauma patterns. I’m committed to providing inclusive, trauma-informed care for every client.

How do I know if I’m ready for this work?

You’re probably ready if you can see your own patterns clearly enough to name them—even if you can’t stop them yet. If you’ve reached the point where you know that the anxiety isn’t about your workload, the relationship difficulty isn’t about your partner, and the exhaustion isn’t about your schedule. This work doesn’t require a crisis. It requires the willingness to look honestly at how your past is shaping your present, and the desire for your inner experience to finally match the life you’ve built. If you’re here, reading this far down a FAQ page, that tells me something.

What if I live outside your geographic area?

I offer online services for both therapy and coaching, so geography is rarely a barrier. For therapy, I need to be licensed in your state—I’m currently licensed in California, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, and New Hampshire—which we can confirm during consultation. Masterclasses, courses, and Strong & Stable are accessible worldwide.