I see therapy as a collaborative process where I bring my training and experience into the therapy room and you bring your life experience in order to work towards making life better. The collaborative process is important in all aspects of the therapy process, creating a safe environment, setting goals, doing the work between sessions, checking on progress, and checking on the overall process. My hope is that we are moving towards creating a rich and meaningful life and we move towards that together.

The way I work is by being curious about who you are, and I always find it a great honor and privilege when someone shares their story, their pain, and joys in life. Opening up about struggles can be very scary and it is my hope to attune to what you need in this therapeutic relationship by listening, watching, asking questions, and sharing my own experience in the therapy room. This therapeutic relationship is so important in this process that I often find myself checking in about how that is going.

MS - Counseling Psychology

CA 86806

he/him

My interests are spending time with my family, wife, son, and daughter, we go camping and hiking often. I enjoy playing with my dogs, I have a Boxer/Pit mixed, and a Rhodesian Ridgeback. I also love trying new coffee, when I visit new places I seek out local coffee shops that roast their coffee. I also really enjoy cooking and eating good food.

In college I studied traditional arts, mainly sculpture and pottery. After I graduated I realized that I love making things, but not the greatest in making a living out of it. As I stumbled from job to job, I kept getting drawn into working with families and people struggling. Growing up, my family were migrant farm workers up and down CA, and we often sought help from shelters and other supports. My mother worked extremely hard to give us the best she could and as I got older I realized that her best was often supported by social workers, therapist, and others and I believe this influenced the direction in the work I do.

I have my own self-care routine that I try to follow the best I can, not always perfect at it. I often wake up early, before anyone is awake, make a good cup of coffee. While drinking my coffee I either meditate or take classes to better my therapy skills. Then I take my dogs for a walk, do my workouts which is either running, rowing, walking, and yoga.

I have read Lord of the Rings several times – the richness of the characters and the loyalty they have for one another. I especially enjoy the courage it takes to start a journey, stay in the journey, no matter where that journey leads. After high school, I wanted to be an artist and I started that journey, but being a therapist has been an amazing twist to this journey and I love it.

My family and I enjoy sponsoring animal foundations, such as ARF in Walnut Creek. We recently sponsored two cats and two dogs in North Carolina where family lives and really celebrated as a family that two of them were recently adopted!

What keeps me recharged is doing the things I love, cooking, playing with my dogs, and exercising.