My passion for the fields of intimacy disorders and trauma is rooted in a deep commitment to facilitating integrative healing and helping individuals realize their potential across all dimensions of their lives. In my psychotherapy practice, I utilize innovative approaches, including polyvagal informed and interpersonal neurobiology frameworks, complemented by attachment based, somatic, cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and systemic interventions.
My clinical specialties include certified sex addiction therapist, certified clinical sexologist, and EMDR certified therapist. As part of my doctoral research, I developed a polyvagal informed treatment approach (PTA) for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD). From an autonomic nervous system (ANS) perspective, the central aim of PTA for CSBD is to help individuals more efficiently regulate and ultimately retune their ANS from chronic threat states into a state of safety, primarily through recruitment of the social engagement system as a portal of intervention. Compulsive and addictive sexual behavior is understood as an inefficient state regulation strategy that emerges when the ANS has been shaped toward defense, often in the context of unresolved early relational trauma. In contrast, an ANS anchored in safety supports more efficient regulation strategies, including co-regulation, coregulated sexuality, and embodied intimacy.
Prior to joining Pathway Therapy Center, I worked at Banyan Therapy Group, an outpatient facility specializing in intimacy disorders, and served as a primary therapist at Seeking Integrity Los Angeles, a residential treatment center focused on compulsive sexual behavior disorder, sex, love, and porn addictions, sexualized drug use, and sexual anorexia. I also worked as a primary therapist at Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Center in Los Angeles, treating individuals living with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, and other trauma related disorders. My academic background includes a PhD in Clinical Sexology from the International Institute of Clinical Sexology in Miami; a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a double major in finance and French from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My commitment to comprehensive study enabled me to graduate at the top of my class in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Before becoming a psychotherapist, I worked in investment banking in New York City and later in the film industry in Los Angeles.