Therapy Approaches
Evidence-based, insight-oriented, and developmentally responsive therapy for children, teens, and adults in Florida.
Jump to: DBT | CBT | ERP | HRT | ACT | Play-Based Therapy | Insight-Oriented Therapy
Therapy is not one-size-fits-all.
I use an integrative approach to therapy, which means I tailor treatment to each client’s needs, goals, age, symptoms, and lived experience. Some clients benefit from structured skills and practical tools, while others need space to better understand long-standing patterns, relationships, or emotions.
Below are some of the therapy approaches I most often draw from in my work.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT helps clients build practical skills for managing emotions, improving relationships, tolerating distress, and responding more effectively in difficult moments.
I often use DBT skills with teens and adults who feel overwhelmed, emotionally reactive, anxious, stuck in people-pleasing patterns, or unsure how to cope when emotions feel intense.
Helpful For:
✓ Intense emotions
✓ Anxiety and depression
✓ Relationship challenges
✓ Distress tolerance
✓ Emotion regulation
✓ Self-harm or suicidal thoughts
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This approach helps clients identify unhelpful patterns, build coping skills, and practice new ways of responding to stress.
CBT can be especially helpful for clients who feel stuck in cycles of anxiety, self-criticism, avoidance, or negative thinking.
Helpful For:
✓ Anxiety
✓ Depression
✓ Low self-esteem
✓ Stress management
✓ Negative thought patterns
✓ Avoidance
ERP is an evidence-based treatment for OCD and anxiety-related fears. It helps clients gradually face feared thoughts, situations, sensations, or images while reducing compulsions, reassurance-seeking, avoidance, and other safety behaviors.
ERP is not about forcing yourself to “just get over it.” It is a structured, supportive way to build confidence and tolerance for uncertainty over time.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Helpful For:
✓ OCD
✓ Emetophobia
✓ Health anxiety
✓ Panic
✓ Specific fears
✓ Reassurance-seeking
✓ Avoidance behaviors
Habit Reversal Training (HRT)
HRT is commonly used for body-focused repetitive behaviors (or BFRBs), such as skin picking, hair pulling, nail biting, and related habits. Treatment often includes increasing awareness of urges and patterns, building competing responses, and making supportive changes to the environment.
This approach can help clients better understand when and why behaviors happen, without shame or judgment.
Helpful For:
✓ Skin picking
✓ Hair pulling
✓ Nail biting
✓ Tics
✓ Body-focused repetitive behaviors
✓ Urge awareness
ACT helps clients build a different relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings while moving toward what matters most to them. Rather than trying to eliminate every uncomfortable emotion, ACT focuses on values, flexibility, acceptance, and meaningful action.
This approach can be especially helpful for anxiety, perfectionism, self-criticism, and feeling stuck.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Helpful For:
✓ Anxiety
✓ Perfectionism
✓ Self-criticism
✓ Chronic stress
✓ Life transitions
✓ Feeling stuck
Play-Based Therapy
For children, therapy often works best when it is developmentally appropriate, engaging, and not overly abstract. Play-based interventions can help children express emotions, practice coping skills, process experiences, and build confidence in a way that feels natural to them.
I may incorporate games, art, storytelling, movement, role-play, and other creative activities to help children feel comfortable and engaged in therapy.
Helpful For:
✓ Emotional expression
✓ Anxiety
✓ Behavior challenges
✓ Coping skills
✓ Social skills
✓ Self-esteem
✓ Children and tweens
Insight-Oriented Therapy
Insight-oriented therapy helps clients better understand themselves, their patterns, and the experiences that have shaped how they relate to themselves and others.
This approach is psychodynamic-informed and can be helpful for clients who want to explore relationship patterns, attachment wounds, self-esteem, identity, perfectionism, or long-standing emotional patterns.
Helpful For:
✓ Relationship patterns
✓ Attachment wounds
✓ Self-esteem
✓ Perfectionism
✓ People-pleasing
✓ Long-standing emotional patterns
Additional Areas of Expertise
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Nutrition-Informed Mental Health
Certified Nutrition-Informed Mental Health Professional (CMNCS)
Research continues to demonstrate the important connection between nutrition, the brain, and emotional well-being. As a Certified Nutrition-Informed Mental Health Professional, I consider how nourishment, eating patterns, and the relationship with food may influence mental health when clinically appropriate.
While I do not provide nutrition counseling or meal planning, this perspective can be especially valuable for clients recovering from eating disorders, struggling with chronic dieting, or navigating concerns related to ADHD, anxiety, and mood.
This perspective may be especially helpful for:
✓ Eating disorders
✓ Binge eating disorder
✓ ADHD
✓ Anxiety
✓ Depression
✓ Body image concerns -
Certified Youth Mental Health Specialist
Certified Youth Mental Health Specialist (CYMHS)
Children and adolescents are not simply "small adults." Therapy with young people requires an understanding of developmental stages, family dynamics, emotional regulation, and age-appropriate interventions.
My training as a Certified Youth Mental Health Specialist supports my work with children, teens, and families while creating a space where young people feel understood, respected, and supported as they grow.
This expertise may be especially helpful for:
✓ Anxiety
✓ ADHD
✓ Emotion regulation
✓ School-related concerns
✓ Self-esteem
✓ Family communication
Not sure which approach is right for you?
You do not need to know exactly what type of therapy you need before reaching out. We can talk through what you are looking for and decide together whether my approach feels like the right fit.