I am a nationally certified Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) offering sessions to individuals and families who need to be seen in the evening. With previous experience working with traumatized refugees rebuilding their lives, as well as grieving families in hospice care, I have expanded to working in private practice with all people who feel overwhelmed by their suffering and find their lives have lost direction and meaning. I have helped a broad diversity of people and their families, from adolescents (16+), adults, and families, with a special focus on immigrants, people of color, those aging, traumatically bereaved, and those facing chronic illness. I am fluent in Portuguese and have a developing proficiency in Spanish. 

With an undergraduate background in philosophy and graduate training in the integration of mental health and spiritual exploration at Loyola University Maryland, I help clients transform their suffering into wisdom. This is made possible by an environment of courage and curiosity, compassion and creativity. A simple flow guides therapy: find ways to alleviate suffering enough so that insight can emerge about the ways in which our mind, our relationships, and the world may need to change- then use this wisdom to live an intentional life organized around deep values.

My therapeutic approach can be categorized as integrative, mindfulness-based, narrative therapy. By combining body-based emotional awareness with clear and purposeful narratives that guide healthy thinking, living in alignment with one’s truest needs and dreams becomes so much easier. 

We will study the complex ways your life has become challenging, avoiding the narrowness of traditional “mental” health to look at the many dimensions of experience that contribute to wellness or suffering. We will engage and respect the needs of the body as the foundation of all our work; study the patterns and narrative networks that constitute your mind; understand the ways the conversations, relationships, and culture around you affect the way you think; explore the way the physical environments that are the setting of your life contribute or detract from your sense of well-being. Within all of this complexity we will find the path of greatest healing.

We will use the latest and most effective treatment options to engage in a process of regeneration. We will work at the intersection of the mind and  body, engaging in mindfulness-based narrative therapy. We will shift the cognitive-behavioral patterns that exacerbate suffering unnecessarily. We will use what we learned to challenge the ways society is limiting your ability to generate well-being. We will heal relational wounds and nurture better emotional roots, individually and collectively. A regenerated person can then sustain growth.

You will grow stronger and wiser by transforming pain into purpose. When we take the time to heal our wounds, we discover within them the potential for new forms of growth, both for ourselves and the communities around us. This transformation of pain into purpose changes the course of our life and opens up new opportunities. My hope is to see you walk away with a clarity of identity and purpose, coupled with a healthy body and mind.