My number one priority when providing individual therapy is to provide an environment where an individual feels comfortable and safe. Therapy can often be a difficult journey on which to embark, and I believe part of my responsibility as a clinician is to ensure I am helping to ease anxieties and tension about the therapeutic process along the way. As an out lesbian therapist, I want to extend that “safe space” mentality to individuals from all backgrounds and subcultures and ensure that your therapy experience can be a time when just being honest and being “yourself” is always okay. I often use a combination of trauma-focused and family systems framework in sessions, operating under the understanding that our experiences from our past play a large role in our functioning today. I always want to help people get to the root of understanding the “why” behind a behavior or emotion before diving into attempting to “fix” something that is perceived as being wrong. I work to get to know how each of my clients likes to learn and what types of activity they need to get the most out of our work together. Not everyone enjoys or benefits from “talk therapy”, so I incorporate art, games, music, videos, and other mediums into sessions to allow people to have different experiences. Most importantly, regardless of what a person is coming into therapy to work on, I believe that the client is in charge of their journey and that our relationship is a partnership. I welcome feedback from all my clients about their experiences in therapy because my number one goal is to make sure my clients feel like our sessions are beneficial and important to them.