"We are all much more simply human than otherwise."

In my work, I combine granularly honed dexterity in the flow and process of psychotherapy with a deep intellectual immersion in the theories that undergird this process.

I began studying the process of psychotherapy over ten years ago, as a research assistant at the Brief Psychotherapy Research Lab. (Brief psychotherapy is an excellent specimen for research purposes because the very brevity of brief therapy heightens the processes that foster change–or don’t–in all therapy.) While there, I viewed numerous videotapes of recorded psychotherapy sessions and was able to form some initial impressions regarding what distinguishes effective psychotherapy from ineffective psychotherapy.

I then began my doctoral training at the Derner Institute, where I continued learning about psychotherapy through a granular, process-based lens, while simultaneously immersing myself in the foundational theories of what drives human psychology–and, most relevantly, what drives it off course. At the conclusion of my doctoral program, I defended my thesis, which took the form of a qualitative process analysis of breakthrough sequences in contrasting approaches within psychodynamic therapy.

Mirroring the general course of my training and education, my thesis combined a granular, line-by-line analysis of isolated breakthrough sequences selected from real sessions in each approach with a detailed survey of the differing theoretical and philosophical assumptions undergirding the approaches. I completed my doctoral internship at New York’s top-rated Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where I worked with an incredibly wide array of patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings.