Welcome

I am a Harvard-trained individual and couples psychotherapist with over 20 years of clinical experience working with adults, couples and adolescents. For the past two decades I have practiced, taught and researched a form of therapy treatment called Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP).

ISTDP is based on the idea that many of the issues that bring people to therapy are a result of conflicts about feelings. When emotions are too hard or painful to bear, we can easily avoid, ignore, or run from them. These temporary strategies of avoidance can be helpful in the short-term, allowing us to survive difficult points in our lives. However, they may become less helpful over time, instead creating emotional (e.g. depression, anxiety), cognitive (e.g. overthinking) and physical suffering (e.g. chronic pain), and keeping us from reaching our full potential. The aim of ISTDP is to help patients overcome resistance to experiencing feelings about present or past conflicts, while activating the healthy strengths and healing capacities within each person.

By improving the relationship you may have with your feelings, I can help you reconnect with others and with those parts of yourself that you may feel you have lost. My patients have found this reconnection to self and other to be essential in helping resolve long-term issues that have kept you from fully enjoying and experiencing life.

What is ISTDP?

Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a scientifically validated method of treatment that accelerates the process of change, often producing deep and lasting change in a relatively short time. Adapted from traditional psychoanalytic theory, ISTDP is a collaborative process in which the therapist is active and involved, providing moment-by-moment feedback to the patient. While long-term therapies tend to focus on history collecting and talking about past experiences, ISTDP primarily focuses on patterns of relatedness that occur in the here-and-now in current relationships, including the relationship with the therapist.

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Areas of Focus

Patients may seek consultation and treatment with a psychologist for a variety of purposes. Life changes or events may trigger the need to adapt or respond in ways that prove to be challenging or stressful. You may feel that you want to improve how you function in work or school, or to have better quality relationships.

I work with patients on a wide spectrum of presenting issues, including these common areas of focus:

Anger	Depression
Anxiety	Mind/Body Syndromes
Attention Issues	Relationships