I earned my Bachelor’s degree in psychology at UC Berkeley before obtaining two Masters from Columbia University, one focused on clinical assessment and the other on psychological counseling.  Additionally, I completed post-graduate training and certification at the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy in NYC.

My clinical experience began at a residential treatment center in Los Angeles. My work focused on helping individuals and families process and move forward from trauma and abuse to create a life that was not dictated by the past. After moving to New York City for graduate school, I continued my clinical work and training at The Dean Hope Center.  I completed my graduate fieldwork at a private practice in midtown and went on to work at a rehab center in Brooklyn.  As a rehabilitation counselor, I ran group and individual sessions centered on addiction issues of all kinds – food addiction, drug and alcohol addiction, attachments to drama and negative people, etc. Simultaneously, I began to build my private practice part-time and eventually made a full-time transition. A few years into my private practice, I joined the team at Concern, an EAP program designed to bring therapy and resources to organizations across the country.  As a therapist through Concern, I worked on-site at Google, New York.

Research requires such a great deal of time; long ago, I decided to dedicate that precious resource of mine to my clinical work. But once upon a time…

My research interests focused on cultural norming, empathic accuracy, and mind/body connections. 

By cultural norming, I mean the factors that lead to people feeling that one thing is “normal” over another, and how people break away from their norm schemas to create their own standard of normal.  What are the emotional consequences and benefits of breaking out of, for example, family normed ideas about success?  What about the emotional consequences and benefits of breaking away from cultural norms around beauty, gender roles, relationship hierarchies, the monolith of marriage, what it means to be educated, and the 'task completion = self-worth' paradigm.

By empathic accuracy, I’m talking about the sensation of feeling someone’s eyes on you from across the room or feeling the tension in the room, for example. Do people vary in their ability to accurately feel the emotional landscapes around them, and if so, why? Can you measure empathic accuracy quantitatively, using bio-markers? Can you get better at feeling what someone else is feeling? How can people who score high on empathic accuracy access the emotional landscape of others without forfeiting their own emotional experience? At the Berkeley Institute for Human Development in California, I assisted Dr. Gilad Hirschberger in his empathic accuracy studies. The empathic accuracy studies examined emotional reactivity, control, and perception to determine how culture and ethnicity influence the behavioral, subjective, communicative, and physiological aspects of emotions.

By mind/body connections, I mean the way hormones like dopamine and cortisol impact perspective, hopefulness, and depression. At UCLA’s Hammen Lab, I assisted Dr. Constance Hammen in her hormone and depression studies. Dr. Hammen’s work examined the role of cortisol in stress, depression, and interpersonal aspects of psychopathology.

I think of literacy in the same way I think of money; literacy is an infinite resrouce which everyone can and should have ample access to. Denying someone literacy is the same as denying someone access to a livable wage; a cycle of poverty ensues. Economic poverty, yes. But also worse, a psychical poverty. The incalculable loss of wasted genius in the underserved.

I’ve always been interested in public health and education. I’m ever-exploring how to use books, social media, and literacy to increase access to mental wellness for all. I previously served on the associate board of Reading Partners, a non-profit designed to enhance the lives of young students through reading. While I was attending Berkeley, I worked at the Lionel Wilson Preparatory Academy as a literacy specialist with an emphasis on how to use books, reading, and writing to add structure, calm, and insight to the day.   

Around that same time, my peripheral interests in sociology and advertising led me to Dr. Jean Kilbourne’s research on how advertising influences thoughts, feelings, and each person’s sense of cultural normalcy. My older brother gave me Kilbourne’s book because I’ve always been obsessed with advertising. As a kid, I watched tv for the commercials, not the show (except for Batman: the animated series; when I tell you I loved that show...I loved that show). Still, even during Batman, when my siblings would talk during the commercials I’d demand they stfu in the scrappy, feral, and effectual manner that the third of four kids must learn to cultivate if they are at all interested in surviving. ANYWAY. I created and taught two courses at UC Berkeley based directly on Dr. Kilbourne’s work. The courses I taught were:

Deconstructing Advertising: Exploring the subjective power of advertising campaigns

&

The Psychology of Counterfeit Need: Exploring identity formation through brand attachment

With the same intention of bringing dialogue about mental health into public spaces, I started working with community leaders and organizers. I began giving free monthly talks about how to change at Brooklyn treatment courts, then other companies and community organizations invited me to share my message -- NYU, Airbnb, Hilton Hotels, Uplift Studios, Sephora, Harvard Business School, etc. I love working with the media to promote dialogue around mental health. I’ve contributed as a mental health expert to a variety of popular media outlets including Oprah Daily, The Cut, NPR, GOOP, Glamour, Entrepreneur, Teen Vogue, In Style, ELLE, Forbes, Real Simple, Reader's Digest, Bloomberg Businessweek + more.

During the pandemic, I wrote my first book, THE PERFECTIONIST’S GUIDE TO LOSING CONTROL: a path to peace and power. My intention for this book was like, “a public health campaign, but make it fun.” (Hence the pop-psychology quiz!) Reading books by a therapist and going to therapy are by no means the same thing, but I did my best to put two years of therapy in a book.