About
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and received a Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington. I have worked with a variety of populations, including incarcerated young people, teen moms, domestic violence survivors, blind and low vision individuals and middle and high school students and their families. I am Argentine American and the majority of my experience is with immigrant and Spanish speaking communities.
My Approach
Talk Therapy
At its best, the mental health field demystifies the underlying patterns of our experience and behavior and provides tools for change. I specialize in helping clients heal from complex trauma.
The term complex trauma refers to prolonged exposure to traumatic conditions over time. A common source of complex trauma is unhealthy relationship patterns in our families of origin or adult relationships. It may have looked like physical, sexual or verbal abuse, but it also may have looked like neglect, such as one or more family member's needs being prioritized over others’, or one or more family member's experience being consistently dismissed, invalidated or ignored.
This kind of environment often affects our sense of self in ways we don’t fully understand, but show up as symptoms that need our attention, like anxiety and depression. The theories that influence my work, like psychodynamic theory, attachment theory, and polyvagal theory are informed by neurobiology. They help us make sense of how these prior experiences continue to affect us mentally, physically and emotionally, and offer us a way forward.
Somatics
I use body-based approaches like EMDR and Reiki to help clients reconnect with a felt sense of trust and safety. While the mental health field is great at identifying problems, healing isn't just the absence of pain or distress, it's the presence of something new and different. It’s the difference between acquiring new knowledge and feeling change deeply, in our bones. True healing is an integrative process, transforming both our mental and physical experience of ourselves.
Spirituality
When we repair our relationship with ourselves and our bodies, we feel deeply connected to the world around us. We may experience this shift in perspective as both grounded and transcendent. It can be as simple as finally finding the peace we’ve been seeking. Unfortunately, a lot of abuse and exploitation has taken place in the name of religion and spirituality. Healing can mean reclaiming our own version of spirituality, on our own terms, if we so choose.
Social Change
Without social context and critical analysis, therapy and somatics run the risk of perpetuating existing systems of harm. Refusing to pathologize ourselves and naming injustice, whether it’s structural or interpersonal, is also part of healing. We can discover new pride in gifts and strengths that have gone unacknowledged and unrecognized. We are never alone in what we’re going through, and we can take comfort in knowing that breaking unhealthy patterns helps us heal as a community and a society.