Nurturing growth through deep exploration.
Frequently Asked Questions
General Therapy
What does an LMFT do, and how can they help?
A Licensed Marriage and Family therapist is a master’s level mental health professional working with individuals, families, and couples. They generally provide support for a wide variety of mental health diagnoses, with a focus on relationship difficulties, emotion processing, and life transitions. While the title includes marriage & family, many LMFTs work solely with individuals to help them work through difficulties with their family of origin, marriages, friendships, and other obstacles to developing healthy relationships.An LMFT will consider both your individual experience and the broader cultural and social systems to understand behavioral your patterns.My practice uses a psychodynamic approach integrating EMDR, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and depth-oriented talk therapy tailored to your specific needs and preferences. You can expect to:
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Manage your emotions more effectively
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Reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression
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Understand yourself betterIncrease authenticity and self-compassion
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Disentangle yourself from unhelpful behaviors and beliefs
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Heal from trauma and emotional wounds
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Set more effective boundariesImprove your communication and relationships
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Have a renewed sense of meaning and purpose
How do I know if therapy is right for me?
Pardon the therapist’s bias, but everyone can benefit from therapy. That being said, the type of therapy I practice is not for everyone. If you are wanting to address a specific symptom and would prefer not to explore at a deeper level, you might benefit more from a behavioral or solution-focused therapist. My approach will be most effective for you if you are ready to make a deeper shift that involves lasting change and are willing to address the hard parts.
What should I expect in my first session?
Most sessions will involve you sharing and me asking questions, but the first session is based around a predetermined set of questions. Because the context and social influences are an important part of how I understand your problem, I conduct a thorough intake. This helps me get a sense of who you are, how your problems developed, and how they are impacting your life. It will help us develop a path forward.
Do you offer online therapy or only in-person sessions?
I offer in-person therapy at my office in Hollywood and online therapy for residents of California and Colorado.
How long does therapy usually last?
This depends on the type of concerns you are bringing in and how deep you want to go. Clients who tends to have more severe or chronic struggles will take longer and generally move more slowly than something like a single event trauma or support with a life transition. Therapy is at will and at any point you are not seeing the progress you want to see or you decide you no longer want to attend, you are welcome to end services.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
What is EMDR therapy and how does it work?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy that enables you to process traumatic experiences without being overwhelmed by the emotions of the experience. It facilitates a shift in perspective, allowing negative beliefs to make way for more empowered and hopeful perspectives. EMDR can have a dramatic impact on your experience within as few as a couple of hours of treatment.* When used within the first 90 days after a traumatic event, EMDR can prevent the memory from embedding in the nervous system and causing PTSD or other longterm symptoms.
Is EMDR effective for PTSD and trauma?
EMDR has been extensively researched and proven to be an effective treatment for PTSD and trauma in addition to a variety of other mental health challenges.
How is EMDR different from talk therapy?
Unlike normal talk therapy, EMDR does not require an individual to give a detailed account of their negative experience. While processing the negative experience can still involve intense emotions, the dual attention stimulus supports regulation so a client is not overwhelmed. Typically EMDR can be conducted in a shorter period of time than talk therapy.
How many EMDR sessions do most people need?
The amount of EMDR sessions depends on a number of factors. EMDR is an eight phase process. Psychoeducation and resourcing for EMDR can take as few as a couple of sessions, but can be much longer depending on your ability to tolerate the difficult experience in order to process it. Once a client is ready for EMDR, a single event target can be processed through the remaining stages in as little as one session. If the target is more complex or is a result of chronic mistreatment, processing can take longer.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
What is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy?
Ketamine is an anesthetic that, at lower doses, has psychedelic properties. In a therapeutic setting, ketamine can soften the protective barriers that often interfere with progress. Clients often experience an elevated mood, euphoria, and a greater sense of connection while on ketamine. They may also have a shift in perspective or the ability to move past traumas and painful circumstances that have kept them stuck or interfered with their relationships.
How does ketamine help with depression and trauma?
The medicine effect of ketamine has an antidepressant effect whether or not the client has a psychedelic experience. However, often in a journey one will feel a greater sense of connection and self-compassion that can reduce feelings of isolation and judgement. Clients often experience increased insight or change of perspective during a journey that can allow negative thinking patterns to decrease. When negative thoughts decrease there is often an improvement in mood.
Is ketamine therapy safe?
Ketamine is generally safe and well tolerated, however there is a certain amount of risk any time you are taking a mind-altering substance. With proper screening, safety protocols, proper dosing and an experienced provider, the risk of ketamine use is greatly reduced. The most common negative effects are dizziness, headaches, nausea, and temporary blurred vision.
Do you provide the ketamine, or do I need to go to a clinic?
I will refer you to a medical provider who will screen for contraindications and previous medical conditions to determine whether you are a good candidate for KAP. If approved, the prescription will be sent to a compounding pharmacy and either mailed or available for pick up in certain circumstances. You will bring it to the office, if in-person, or will take it according to the prescription instruction if remote.
How do I know if I'm a good candidate for ketamine-assisted therapy?
There are both medical and emotional considerations when determining whether you are a good fit for KAP. This is something that can be discussed further with the therapist. In general, individuals with rigid personality structures or PTSD may have further difficulty entering a trans state and may experience more subtle benefits. Please read these medical precautions for a list of contraindications.
Depth Therapy
What is depth-oriented therapy?
Depth therapy presumes that the mind attempts to protect the individual by repressing certain memories, beliefs, and feelings into the unconscious mind where they guide our lived experience and contribute to emotional distress. The goal of therapy is to access, by various methods the unconscious material and engage with it consciously so that an individual can individuate and live more intentionally and authentically.
How is depth therapy different from CBT or short-term therapy?
CBT and other short-term therapies tend to focus on a specific behavior or problem, that in depth therapy might be considered a symptom of the underlying distress that causes the behavior. By exploring and healing the underlying, unconscious issues, we create resolution that relieves the symptomatic behavior. Exploring the unconscious requires a certain level of distress tolerance and is often a lengthy process.​
What Kinds of Issues Does Depth Therapy Address?
Because depth therapy seeks to address the source of the problems you’re experiencing, there is a variety of symptoms depth therapy can address: Anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, people-pleasing, lack of purpose or meaning, relationship challenges, trauma, social anxiety, avoidance, etc. Depth therapy is insight oriented and is not recommended for psychotic disorders. While depth therapists can properly treat individuals in crisis, an approach like CBT, DBT, or ACT may be more appropriate as a starting point.
Practical Concerns
Do You Take Insurance, or is Therapy Self-Pay?
My services are self-pay. In order to provide the highest level of care, I need to be realistic about the caseload I manage. Insurance panels reimburse at very low rates, which ultimately increases the client volume and reduces my ability to provide quality care and create a sustainable practice. I offer superbills for those who have insurance that will reimburse their therapy expenses and have limited sliding scale spots for those who qualify. Therapy services can be paid for with a HSA card and the invoice will serve as a superbill. If you would like to pay with an FSA or investigate your insurance coverage, please contact your insurance or employee benefits provider to check your whether services are covered by asking the following questions:​
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Do I have mental health insurance benefits?
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What is my deductible and has it been met?
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How many sessions per year does my health insurance cover?
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What is the coverage amount per therapy session?
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Is approval required from my primary care physician?
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If mental health benefits are covered, be sure to ask the process of submitting for reimbursement.
How Much Does Therapy Cost in Los Angeles?
In a self-pay practice, you can expect to pay $175-600 for a 50-minutes therapy session in Los Angeles.
What is a Consultation?
A consultation is a free 15-minute phone call, where you can meet the therapist and ask any questions you have. The therapist will also ask more about your situation to determine whether they are able to support you or if you might be better with a different modality.
How Do I Schedule a Consultation?
The best way to schedule a consultation is to complete the contact form. I'll reach out to you to schedule a time to talk.
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What Neighborhoods Do You Serve in Los Angeles?
My office is near the intersection of La Brea and Santa Monica on the Hollywood and West Hollywood border, convenient to Beverly Hills, Larchmont, and Hancock Park.​
Do You Have a Therapy Office in Colorado?
No. I offer online therapy in Colorado.
Let's Get Started!
424-672-7282
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