My start in therapy was bumpy, I was a junior in college, a captain on my soccer team, and managing the loss of a friend… I was afraid of my emotions–particularly my grief, my sexuality, and how to reconcile the differences in between the pressures of who others thought I was and who I really was and who wanted to be. I felt misunderstood and like my experiences were wrong or shameful when I sat across from my suit wearing, clip-board holding, stern therapist who began by giving me a talking-to that “I had to get things together.”

I fled the room at the end of the hour with my negative self-talk spiraling, feeling shame and that I couldn’t trust my therapist or even myself. My walls stayed up for some time longer and through some literal mountain-top experiences working in therapeutic communities, I came to accept my sexuality, my grief, my emotions, and decided to commit to the thing I was afraid of becoming a therapist.

As a therapist, I center understanding, self-determination, self-expression, intersectionality, community, empathy, and harm reduction at the heart of my work. As a human, I know that life is hard and I know that I need community and safe space to process those things. I find joy in the complexity of dialectics and in my work I balance seriousness and play, confrontation and care, and grief and joy. I believe in the power of finding joy, contentment, justice, and beauty through acceptance.

I work with adolescents (15 and up) to adults. I work with all-genders and as a male and queer identifying individual, I feel special passion towards working with queer identifying individuals, and masc and male identifying individuals to develop skills towards healthy intimacy, vulnerability, and finding passion and direction in your relationship with yourself and others.

I believe that trust is the foundation of our relationship and from there we will build towards the destination of your values and goals. I believe that therapy is about establishing a collaborative and healthy relationship to make change towards a healthier version of you. We will work to connect and develop understanding to begin to explore your strengths, needs, goals, and self, relationships, and values. We will be co-creators of your therapeutic experience and values working in a relationship to explore and empower change, growth, and self-acceptance.