Psychotherapy for Adults in Colorado: Working Together, Getting to the Heart of the Matter
I am a licensed psychologist offering psychotherapy to adults across Colorado by secure video. People come to see me struggling with emotions, moods, behaviors, and relationships. Often the struggle is older than the current circumstances, rooted in the families we grew up in and in relationships that have hurt us since. Familiar difficulties keep returning, and many people sense that something in themselves is involved, even though they don’t understand how. Feeling better matters. So does understanding why these patterns continue, because understanding is what makes change last.
How I Practice Psychotherapy
Many of the difficulties that bring people to therapy took shape in relationships. They come from how we learned, often early, to stay connected to the people we needed and to protect ourselves when that connection felt uncertain. These ways of feeling and relating made sense at the time. Over the years they can become patterns that run largely outside awareness. They show up in our closest relationships, at work, and in how we treat ourselves.
My approach is psychodynamic and relational. Therapy is a relationship, and I take part in it as a real person, not a neutral observer. I listen closely to what you say and to what you feel. Over time, the ways you’ve learned to be with people will show up between us, and that gives us a chance to understand them together. Change often comes less from explanation than from experiencing something different with another person.
A diagnosis describes symptoms but rarely explains them. I’m interested in what your symptoms mean, what they have protected, and what they have cost you.
You are not to blame for how these patterns began. But you are the one who can change them, and therapy works best when you bring your curiosity, your honesty, and a willingness to notice what you do, including with me. My part is to pay close attention, to say what I see, and to stay with you when things get hard. Neither of us can do the other’s part.
Not every difficulty calls for the same kind of help. I am also trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and mindfulness-based approaches. When I think something more direct would help, such as learning specific skills, working step by step on OCD, or steadying things during a hard time, I’ll suggest it and we’ll decide together. Understanding and practical help work best side by side.
I have practiced as a licensed psychologist in Colorado since 1991, and I am currently pursuing advanced training in Columbia University’s Adult Psychodynamic Psychotherapy program. I also offer twice-weekly psychodynamic psychotherapy at a reduced fee for people paying out of pocket. Meeting more often lets the work, and our relationship, develop more fully. See the Appointments page for details.
Some reasons people come to see me:
Depressed and bipolar moods
Anxiety, fears, worry, and rumination
Harsh or self-critical beliefs about yourself
OCD, intrusive thoughts, and compulsive behaviors
Conflict, loneliness, or the same painful patterns repeating in relationships
Shame, insecurity, and an uncertain sense of who you are
Emotions that feel overwhelming or out of control
Self-defeating behaviors that are hard to stop
Trauma and the lasting emotional wounds
Insomnia and sleep problems
Often what brings someone in is only part of the story. We work on both the immediate problem and what lies beneath it.
As Tsong Khapa wrote more than six centuries ago:
The human body at peace with itself,
is more precious than the rarest gem.
Cherish your body, it is yours for this one time only.
The human form is won with difficulty, it is easy to lose.
All worldly things are brief, like lightning in the sky;
this life you must know, as the splash of a raindrop;
a thing of beauty that disappears, even as it comes into being.
Therefore, set your goal,
make use of every day and night to achieve it.
— Tsong Khapa (1357–1419)