Counseling Services

I serve clients coming from Monterey, Salinas, Gilroy, Hollister and Morgan Hill. People see me for a variety of reasons: anxiety, stress, trauma, communication issues, depression, relational issues, and more.

My goal is to meet you where you are. I will help you find balance in your life and will help you and your family to deal with difficult situations.

About me…

I grew up in South Africa and later moved to Europe after meeting my husband. We lived in various countries – Holland, Paris, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa – before settling in the USA. This personal experience provides me with a wide cultural lens. I now have a unique perspective into the challenges faced by clients from various cultural backgrounds.

I have explored many different treatment techniques while I was a student and later during my practical work as an intern. I have provided therapy for victims of crime and victims of domestic violence, and have worked extensively with clients who battle addictions. I also worked with families and children and came to love doing therapy with kids. I like using techniques that have shown to work well for clients suffering various levels of trauma, such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I completed EMDR Certification with Laurel Parnell in 2015 and have used it very successfully with adults, adolescents and children.

I have faced family trauma and mental illness in my family and have had to battle anxiety and depression at different times in my own life. These difficult situations have given me confidence to work with people who are trauma survivors or just dealing with every day struggles of living life in a challenging, and at times hostile world.

I enjoy working with a variety of clients from all ages, and ethnic backgrounds. I also enjoy being creative in my counseling strategies. My ideal client is the individual who is committed to the counseling work, who actively participates in and embraces the difficult process of change. 

My core strength? I believe it is my ability to connect with people at a real, deep level.

verified by Psychology Today

Member of the American Counseling Association

Member of the Monterey Chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

Verified by Psychology Today as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor

Member of the Parnell Institute (EMDR)

Counseling Services

I provide evidence-based psychotherapy services for individuals suffering from a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues, including anxiety and panic attacks; depression; trauma; adjustment disorders; relational problems; and many others. I love seeing the transformation process, to see my clients coming out of a dark place into hope and freedom!

I have developed advanced skills in the following areas.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro that emphasizes disturbing memories as the cause of psychopathology. It is used to help with the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to Shapiro, when a traumatic or distressing experience occurs, it may overwhelm normal coping mechanisms. The treatment has been well researched and has been shown to be better than no treatment and similar in benefit to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in chronic PTSD.

CBT

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that was originally designed to treat depression but is now used successfully to treat a variety of mental disorders. This technique acknowledges that some behaviors are not controlled through rational thought but rather emerge based on prior conditioning from the environment and from various external and/or internal stimuli.

CBT is “problem focused” (undertaken for specific problems) and “action oriented” (therapist tries to assist the client in selecting specific strategies to help address those problems).

Read more about CBT here. This counseling blog post also provides some insight into the use of CBT techniques to overcome ‘toxic’ thinking.

Play Therapy

Play therapy is a form of counseling that is generally employed with children. It uses play to communicate with children and help them to resolve psychosocial challenges. It provides a way for them to express their experiences and feelings through a natural, self-guided, self-healing process. This is thought to help them towards better social integration, growth and development, emotional modulation, and trauma resolution.

Play therapy can also be used as a diagnostic tool where the therapist observes the child playing with toys to determine the cause of the disturbed behavior.