ONLINE IN NEW YORK CITY AND SEATTLE, WA
Therapy for Anxiety & Depression
What you’re feeling is real, but it doesn’t need to control how you live.
You don’t feel like yourself these days.
Maybe something very specific happened—a breakup, a falling out, a world event that knocked you off balance, a racist or homophobic remark or action aimed at you—and your life split into “before,” and “after.”
Or maybe, life slowly chipped away at you, little by little, until you had nothing left.
Either way, you feel like your feet are sandbags weighing down every step you take and all you want to do is sleep, even though you wake up just as exhausted. Maybe you had things you enjoyed, like hobbies, events, or friends, that just feel like chores now.
You keep pushing through because there’s no other choice, but it gets a little harder every day. All the while, you’re beating yourself up inside because your life isn’t even that bad—so many people have it worse. You hear about them on the news every day. But you’re just treading water and your head is barely above the surface.
You might say things like…
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You tell yourself you'll stop scrolling your newsfeed but then you see another headline that reignites your existential dread and you’re glued to your phone for several more hours. It’s never ending and you can’t seem to break the cycle. You’re starting to feel hopeless.
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Maybe you came out later than most of your friends and you feel like you're playing catch-up on a life they've been living for years. Or you look at your career and wonder if you chose the safe path your parents wanted instead of the one you wanted. You measure where you are against where you thought you'd be by now and you don’t like what you see.
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Your friends are going to brunch, but you’re staying home again. You miss having people to hang with, but going out means being "on," and right now that takes more than you have. Maybe going out means being the only queer person or person of color in the group, or it means the exhaustion of code-switching. Staying home is just easier. You know your world is getting smaller, but you don’t have the energy to do anything about it.
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You used to feel solid in who you were, but now you second-guess yourself constantly. Maybe you started HRT and you're excited about it but your skin is breaking out and your voice cracks in the middle of important meetings at work. Maybe you came out as gay recently and you don't know how to exist in certain spaces anymore. You used to trust yourself but you’re not so self-assured anymore.
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Maybe you eat cereal for dinner four nights in a row because deciding on something else feels like too much. Some days it’s a chore to brush your teeth before bed. Maybe part of you has been waiting for the political landscape to calm down before you start living your life again, but it's not happening, and you're starting to realize you've been on pause for a long time. You're not living. You're just getting through.
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You're on the couch, your cat is on your lap, the door is locked. But your jaw is clenched and every noise is making you jump. The news has been bad for a while and you can't tell if things are getting worse or if you're just paying more attention. People keep asking what's wrong and you keep saying "nothing" because how do you explain the constant, never-ending dread?
MY APPROACH
The way you’re feeling is valid. Here, I want to look at how you’re reacting to those feelings.
If you're queer, a person of color, or navigating discrimination or family pressure, there are very real sociopolitical factors that may be weighing you down right now—and that’s a reasonable reaction to very real environmental experiences that feel largely outside of your control.
You’re not alone in your struggles, even if it might feel like you are. We’ll use the relationship between us in sessions to create feelings of safety for you when sharing your feelings. You don’t have to think about how I’ll react. We’ll sit in your emotions together and with time you’ll come to learn you can do that without falling to pieces.
There are parts of yourself you probably don't like very much right now, or that you worry others hate or judge you for. We're going to help you stop being at odds with them, and maybe even start to appreciate them as part of who you are.
I'll also push you a little, once you’re ready for it, to start taking small risks like making small talk, or leaving the house a certain number of times each week. The goal is to help you get okay with being uncomfortable so you realize it’s okay to venture outside of your comfort zone. When you build a habit of it, you can grow and live your fullest life.
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While we sleep, our brain processes events that happened and stores them away as memories—as something from the past. Sometimes, we have life experiences that are too overwhelming for our minds and body to process as they normally would. The memories get “stuck.” When that happens, we can feel like those events are still happening now, in the present.
This can show up as anxiety, depression, numbness, or a constant feeling of being on edge. Sights, smells, sounds, or sensations that remind you of the initial event can cause your body to react in ways that don’t feel entirely proportional to the present-day situation.
If you have past trauma that is contributing to your anxiety or depression in this way, I can offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). This method uses something called bilateral stimulation to help your brain finish processing the memory. When that happens, your internal alarm stops going off and you get to actually be present in your life instead of constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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Sometimes the thing making your anxiety or depression worse is something you believe about yourself. Things like "I should be able to handle this on my own" or "if I'm not productive I'm worthless" or "other people have it worse so I don't get to feel this way." You've been living by these rules for so long they feel like facts, but they're not. They're beliefs most likely handed to you by your family, your culture, or the world you grew up in.
These beliefs are rigid, and they can set you up to fail. When you can't meet an impossible standard, you feel worse about yourself, which feeds the anxiety and the depression, which makes it even harder to function, which confirms the belief that you're not enough. It's a cycle that reinforces itself.
If this is your experience, I can use Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) to help break that cycle. I'll ask you questions that help you look at those beliefs from an angle you haven't considered to help you think more flexibly. When those beliefs loosen up, the anxiety and depression that's been feeding off them start to loosen up too.
Therapy can help you…
Feel okay about who you are, even the parts you've been trying to hide or fix, and stop spending so much energy being at war with yourself.
Move forward from the moments in your life you seem to relive over and over and be fully in the present.
Feel confident that you have the tools you need to handle the tough stuff in life without it derailing everything or sending you spiraling into negative feelings about yourself.
Wake up with enough energy to get through your day without having to bargain with yourself to get out of bed—and feel steady in your energy levels consistently.
Start looking forward to things again instead of just getting through them. Because you believe your life can change for the better.
Express your thoughts and opinions confidently instead of allowing shame or fear to convince you to lock parts of yourself away.
ONLINE THERAPY IN NEW YORK CITY AND SEATTLE, WA
Stop telling yourself other people have it worse. Start making space for your own stuff.
FAQs
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I'm licensed as a clinical social worker in both New York and Washington State. I have a Masters of Social Work (MSW) from New York University and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Intensive Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the William Alanson White Institute. I'm also trained in EMDR for people who need to process specific experiences that are contributing to their anxiety or depression,
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Yes. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. During a session, I'll ask you to focus on a specific memory while following a visual or physical cue, like a light or tapping. That process helps your brain reprocess experiences that are still affecting you so they lose the charge they've been holding onto. If your anxiety or depression is connected to something that happened to you, a traumatic event, a loss, an experience you haven't fully processed, EMDR can help you be more present in your day-to-day life.
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Absolutely. If you're queer, a person of color, an immigrant, or someone who feels politically targeted or discriminated against, your feelings are a very reasonable response to what's happening around you. If you need to process that with someone, I’m here to listen. As someone who is gay, a person of color, and the child of immigrants, I understand how the current political climate can be an additional weight on your shoulders.
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Stress usually has a clear source like a deadline, a fight with your partner, or a busy schedule. When the thing causing the stress goes away, the feeling will go with it. Anxiety sticks around even when there's nothing obvious to worry over. You might feel on edge, have trouble sleeping, catch yourself running through worst-case scenarios about things that haven't happened, or feel a tightness in your chest. I’m happy to discuss what you’re experiencing during our consultation call to determine if this is the right fit for you.
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Sadness is a response to something that happened and is typically temporary. Signs of depression include persistent sad or empty moods, loss of interest in favorite activities, extreme tiredness, changes in sleep or eating habits, and feelings of worthlessness. People with depression tend to experience these symptoms more often than not. A consultation call will help us determine if what you’re experiencing is something we can work on together.
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If you're in immediate danger, call 911. If you're having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. The Crisis Text Line is also available by texting HOME to 741741. These services are free and available 24/7.
I provide unlimited coordination with your entire treatment team, with your permission. If you do need to seek crisis services between sessions, I will already have the ecosystem in place to stay in communication with your care team so I have all the details by the next time we meet.