My Approach
In-person in East Nashville · Online across Tennessee & Virginia
How I See People
I don't think there's something fundamentally wrong with you. What I do think is that the ways you've learned to cope, protect yourself, and move through the world made sense at some point — even if they're not serving you anymore. Most of the time, our patterns aren't problems. They're responses. Responses to real experiences, real relationships, real moments when something hurt or felt unsafe. Understanding that changes everything about how we work together.
We are wired for connection. Our earliest relationships taught us what closeness feels like, whether it's safe, and how to reach for it — or how to protect ourselves from the possibility of losing it. Those early lessons don't disappear. They show up in how we love, how we argue, how we pull away, and how we long to be known.
Therapy, as I practice it, is the work of making sense of those lessons — and learning, gradually and honestly, to write new ones.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy was developed to understand what happens when connection breaks down — not the content of the conflict, but the emotional choreography beneath it. Who reaches. Who withdraws. What each person is really trying to communicate when things get hard.
Beneath most conflict, most distance, most of the ways we hurt the people we love — there's something softer trying to get through. A longing that never quite made it. A fear of not mattering that came out as anger. A withdrawal that was really a self-protective response to feeling too exposed.
EFT slows all of that down. Whether we're working on a relationship or exploring your own inner world, the focus is the same — getting beneath the surface to what's actually happening emotionally, and creating space for something new to emerge. When we can finally feel into what's been driving the pattern — and begin to express it honestly — the cycle changes. People find each other again. People find themselves again.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT begins with an honest premise: difficulty is not a sign that something has gone wrong. Anxiety, loss, uncertainty, painful thoughts — these aren't enemies to be defeated. They're part of a full human life.
What ACT offers is a different way of relating to that difficulty. Rather than fighting it, avoiding it, or letting it define you — we get curious about it. We learn to observe it without being consumed by it. And from that steadier ground, we turn toward something more generative: your values.
Not the values you think you should have. The ones that are actually yours — the principles and commitments that, when you're living in alignment with them, make life feel meaningful rather than just manageable.
ACT is about moving toward that life. Deliberately. Even when it requires sitting with discomfort along the way.
Where These Meet
In practice EFT and ACT don't operate as separate tracks. They become one honest conversation about who you are, what's gotten in the way, and where you want to go.
The work tends to move through three natural phases — not as a rigid sequence, but as an organic arc:
Acknowledging the past. We look honestly at the experiences and relationships that shaped your current patterns. This isn't about dwelling or assigning fault. It's about understanding — because when something finally makes sense, it loses some of its power.
Getting honest about the present. We slow down and look at what's actually happening right now — underneath the functioning, the managing, the getting through. This is often where the most unexpected and meaningful discoveries happen.
Moving toward what matters. With a clearer sense of who you are and what you value, we begin to move — toward the relationships, the life, the version of yourself that feels true rather than just familiar.
When this arc unfolds in the room, something shifts. Not all at once. But visibly. People describe feeling more like themselves. More capable of choosing rather than reacting. More present in their own lives.
That's what I'm working toward.
The Relationship Is the Work
I want to be clear about something: I don't see the relationship between therapist and client as the setting for the work. I see it as the work itself.
The research is consistent on this — the quality of the therapeutic relationship is one of the most reliable predictors of whether therapy actually helps. Not the technique. Not the modality. The relationship.
So I show up as a real person. Genuinely curious. Willing to be honest even when it would be easier not to be. Present enough to be moved by what you share. I'll challenge you when that's what serves you, and I'll sit quietly with you when that's what's needed.
I've done my own work in this area. I'm still doing it. That experience informs how I sit with people in ways that a credential alone never could.
Integration
I believe strongly in bringing all parts of a person's life into the room — not just the symptoms or the presenting problem.
Your relationships, your sense of meaning and purpose, your history, your body, your creative life, your questions about faith or spirituality or what any of it is for — all of it is relevant. All of it belongs. The thing you're most tempted to leave out is often the thing most worth exploring.
I work with people across the full spectrum of backgrounds, identities, relationship structures, and spiritual orientations. There's no version of you that needs to be edited before you walk through the door.
Ready to Begin?
If something here resonates — if you're curious what this kind of work might look like for you — I'd love to connect. Reach Out Here.
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