Frequently Asked Questions

Starting therapy can bring up a lot of questions—especially if you’ve been struggling for a long
time, have tried therapy before, or aren’t quite sure how to describe what you’re experiencing.
Below are answers to some of the questions I hear most often.

General Therapy Questions

Do you offer in-person and virtual therapy?

Yes. I offer both in-person and virtual therapy. My office is in the Denver/Lakewood area, and I
also provide secure telehealth sessions for clients in states where I am licensed.
Some people prefer the connection of meeting in person, while others appreciate the convenience
and comfort of meeting from home. We can talk about which option feels like the best fit for
you.

What issues do you help clients with?

I primarily work with adults who are struggling with trauma, complex PTSD, anxiety,
relationship difficulties, attachment wounds, and patterns that seem difficult to change—even
when they understand where those patterns come from.
Many of my clients are thoughtful and self-aware. They may have spent years trying to
understand themselves, reading, reflecting, or participating in therapy, but still find that their
nervous system reacts in ways they can’t simply think their way out of.

How do I know if you’re the right therapist for me?

Finding the right therapist is about more than credentials or a particular therapy method. You
also need to feel safe, understood, respected, and comfortable enough to be yourself.
I tend to be a good fit for people who want therapy that goes beyond simply talking about what
happened. My work is experiential, relational, and trauma-focused. We may pay attention to
emotions, physical sensations, nervous-system responses, relationship patterns, and the different
parts of you that developed ways of coping with difficult experiences.
You don’t need to know exactly what kind of therapy you need before reaching out. That’s
something we can figure out together.

What should I expect during my first few therapy sessions?

The first few sessions are an opportunity for us to get to know one another. I’ll want to
understand what brings you to therapy, what’s happening in your life now, relevant parts of your
history, and what you hope might be different.
There’s no expectation that you tell me everything right away. Trauma therapy doesn’t require
rushing into painful memories. Establishing safety, trust, and a sense that we can work well
together comes first.

How often should I attend therapy?

Most clients begin with weekly or every two week sessions. Meeting consistently helps us build
momentum and gives us enough continuity to work at a deeper level.
Over time, the frequency of therapy may change depending on your needs, goals, progress, and
circumstances. We can make those decisions together.

How will I know if therapy is working?

Progress doesn’t always look like suddenly feeling better. Sometimes the earliest changes are
subtle.
You might notice that you recover more quickly after being triggered, understand your reactions
with more compassion, set boundaries more easily, feel less overwhelmed by emotions, or
recognize old patterns before automatically falling into them.
Over time, the goal isn’t simply to understand yourself better. It’s to experience meaningful
changes in how you feel, respond, relate to others, and relate to yourself.

Do you accept insurance?

I am a private-pay therapist and do not bill insurance directly. Depending on your insurance plan,
you may have out-of-network benefits that reimburse you for a portion of the cost of therapy. I
can provide documentation (Superbill) for you to submit to your insurance company.

How do I schedule an appointment?

You can contact me through the website to inquire about availability. We’ll start with a brief
conversation to determine whether what you’re looking for and the kind of therapy I provide
seem like a good match. You can schedule a free 15 minute consultation call on my website.

Trauma Therapy

How do I know if I have unresolved trauma?

Trauma doesn’t always show up as vivid memories of something terrible that happened.
Sometimes it looks like anxiety, hypervigilance, shutting down during conflict, difficulty trusting
people, people-pleasing, emotional numbness, perfectionism, intense reactions that seem
disproportionate to what’s happening now, or repeatedly finding yourself in similar relationship
patterns.
You don’t need to decide whether your experiences “count” as trauma before coming to therapy.
We can explore what you’re experiencing and understand it together.

What is complex PTSD (CPTSD)?

Complex PTSD can develop when difficult or overwhelming experiences happen repeatedly,
particularly within important relationships or during childhood.
Rather than being connected to one specific traumatic event, complex trauma can affect how you
experience safety, relationships, emotions, boundaries, trust, and even your sense of who you are.
People with complex trauma often become very good at surviving and functioning. Therapy can
help those survival strategies become less necessary so that there is more room for connection,
flexibility, and choice.

Can therapy help with childhood trauma?

Yes. Experiences from childhood can continue to shape our nervous system, relationships, beliefs
about ourselves, and expectations of other people long after childhood has ended.
Therapy cannot change what happened, but it can change how those experiences continue to live
inside you.
Healing often involves more than understanding your childhood intellectually. It can also involve
helping your nervous system recognize that what happened then is not happening now.

Can therapy help if I don’t remember everything that happened?

Absolutely. You don’t need a complete or perfectly accurate narrative of your past in order to
heal.
Traumatic experiences are not always stored as clear, chronological memories. Sometimes what
remains is a body response, an emotion, a belief, a sense of danger, or a reaction that doesn’t
seem to make sense in the present.
Trauma therapy can work with what is available without trying to force memories to emerge.

How does trauma affect the nervous system?

When something feels threatening or overwhelming, the brain and body automatically organize
around survival.
We may fight, flee, freeze, shut down, become hyper-alert, or orient intensely toward potential
danger. These responses are incredibly useful when danger is present. Problems arise when the
nervous system continues responding as though danger is still happening long after the original
experience has ended.
Trauma therapy helps the nervous system gradually develop a greater capacity to distinguish
between past danger and present-day safety.

What is the difference between trauma therapy and traditional talk therapy?

Talking and understanding can be incredibly valuable. But sometimes we understand exactly
why we react the way we do—and still can’t stop reacting.
Trauma-focused therapies pay attention not only to thoughts and stories but also to emotions,
body sensations, defensive responses, attachment experiences, and the nervous system.
Insight is an important part of therapy, but understanding why you feel or react a certain way
doesn’t always change the reaction itself. Trauma therapy helps bring that understanding into
your emotional and physical experience, so you can begin to feel and respond differently—not
just understand yourself differently.

Can trauma therapy help with anxiety and panic attacks?

It can. Anxiety and panic sometimes develop when the nervous system has become highly
sensitive to threat.
Therapy can help us understand what your nervous system is responding to and work with the
underlying patterns rather than simply trying to make the anxiety disappear.
Not every experience of anxiety is trauma-related, however, so part of our work is understanding
what’s contributing to yours.

Can trauma therapy improve my relationships?

Yes. Trauma—particularly relational or attachment trauma—often becomes most visible in our
relationships.
You may fear abandonment, struggle to trust, become highly sensitive to rejection, shut down
during conflict, over-function for others, or have difficulty expressing needs and boundaries.
As these patterns begin to change, relationships often begin to feel different too.

Attachment & Relationships

What is attachment theory?

Attachment theory helps us understand how our earliest relationships shape our expectations
about closeness, safety, dependence, and connection.
As children, we learn what we need to do to maintain connection with the people we depend on.
Those strategies can continue into adulthood, particularly in intimate relationships.
Attachment therapy isn’t about blaming parents. It’s about understanding the strategies you
developed and helping you have more choices now.

What are the four attachment styles?

The four commonly described attachment patterns are secure, anxious, avoidant, and
disorganized attachment. I have an attachment quiz on my website.
These aren’t permanent personality types or boxes you have to fit into. They’re ways of
describing patterns that can emerge around closeness, vulnerability, independence, reassurance,
and conflict.
Most people are more complicated than a single attachment label, and our patterns can look
different in different relationships.

How does childhood attachment affect adult relationships?

Early relationships help teach our nervous system what to expect from other people.
If connection was generally safe and reliable, closeness may feel relatively comfortable. If care
was inconsistent, unavailable, frightening, intrusive, or unpredictable, you may have learned
strategies for protecting yourself.
Those strategies can later appear as pursuing, withdrawing, people-pleasing, avoiding
vulnerability, fearing abandonment, or struggling to depend on others.

Can therapy help me change my attachment style?

Yes. Attachment patterns are learned, which means they can also change.
One of the powerful things about therapy is that healing doesn’t happen only through talking
about relationships. A safe therapeutic relationship can become a place to experience something
different—being seen, understood, respected, and emotionally accompanied without having to
abandon yourself.

Over time, those experiences can help create greater security both within yourself and in your
relationships.

Can therapy help with relationship anxiety?

Yes. Relationship anxiety can involve constantly wondering whether someone is upset with you,
fearing abandonment, needing reassurance, analyzing interactions, or feeling intensely activated
by changes in another person’s mood or availability.
Rather than simply telling yourself not to worry, therapy can help us understand what makes
these situations feel so threatening and work with the deeper attachment and nervous-system
responses underneath them.

How does attachment-focused therapy improve relationships?

Attachment-focused therapy helps you recognize what happens inside you when connection feels
threatened.
Instead of automatically pursuing, withdrawing, pleasing, controlling, shutting down, or
becoming defensive, you can begin to understand what you’re protecting and what you actually
need and then learn to express your needs in a skillful way.
That awareness creates more room for choice—and often allows for more authentic, secure
relationships.

Can therapy help if I keep repeating unhealthy relationship patterns?

Yes. Repeating a pattern doesn’t mean you consciously chose it.
We are often drawn toward relationship dynamics that feel familiar, even when they’re painful.
Therapy can help you recognize these patterns earlier, understand why they developed, and
become more able to respond differently.
The goal isn’t simply to recognize an unhealthy pattern. It’s to become increasingly able to trust
yourself when you recognize one.

Couples Therapy

When should couples seek therapy?

Couples don’t have to wait until their relationship is in crisis.

Therapy can be helpful when the same conflicts keep repeating, communication has become
difficult, emotional or physical intimacy has decreased, trust has been damaged, or one or both
partners feel increasingly disconnected.
Seeking help earlier can sometimes prevent painful patterns from becoming deeply entrenched.

Do both partners need to attend every session?

Most couples therapy sessions involve both partners because the relationship itself is the focus of
treatment.
There may occasionally be reasons to meet individually, but those sessions are generally part of
the larger couples-therapy process rather than separate individual therapy.

Can couples therapy help after infidelity?

It can. Recovering from infidelity is often painful and complicated, but couples can sometimes
rebuild trust when both partners are willing to engage honestly with what happened and the
impact it has had.
Therapy can provide a structured space for understanding the rupture, addressing the pain,
rebuilding emotional safety, and determining what each partner needs moving forward.

Can couples therapy improve communication?

Yes, although good couples therapy usually goes deeper than teaching communication skills.
Many couples already know they should listen better or speak more gently. The difficulty is
doing that when their nervous systems are activated.
Therapy can help couples recognize the emotional and attachment patterns underneath their
conflicts so they can begin responding to each other differently.

What if my partner isn’t ready for therapy?

You can still begin therapy individually.
Although you cannot change another person’s behavior, individual therapy can help you
understand your own reactions, needs, boundaries, and relationship patterns more clearly.
Sometimes when one person begins responding differently, the relationship changes. Other
times, therapy helps someone become clearer about what they can and cannot accept in a
relationship.

DBR, EMDR & Other Therapy Approaches

What is Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)?

Deep Brain Reorienting, or DBR, is a trauma therapy designed to work with very early brain
responses that occur when something threatening or overwhelming happens.
Rather than beginning with the story of the traumatic experience, DBR pays close attention to
subtle orienting responses, physical sensations, and the sequence of reactions that occur in the
nervous system.
This can make DBR particularly interesting for people who understand their trauma intellectually
but continue to experience powerful reactions that seem to happen automatically.

How does DBR work?

DBR begins by helping a person access a grounded, present state and then carefully noticing
subtle tension associated with the brain’s orienting response.
From there, therapy follows the nervous system’s response slowly rather than pushing directly
into intense emotion or traumatic memories.
The emphasis is on allowing the brain and body to process what happened while helping the
person remain connected to the present.

Who is a good candidate for DBR?

DBR may be helpful for people experiencing trauma-related symptoms, attachment wounds,
anxiety, triggers, or reactions that feel automatic and difficult to control.
It can also be useful for people who have done a great deal of talk therapy and understand
themselves very well but still feel that something hasn’t shifted at a deeper level.
Whether DBR is appropriate depends on the individual, which is something we assess together.

Is DBR effective for complex trauma or CPTSD?

DBR is increasingly being used clinically with complex and developmental trauma because it
works with early nervous-system responses rather than relying solely on a detailed verbal
narrative.
Complex trauma often requires careful pacing. The goal isn’t to push through traumatic material
but to work with the nervous system at a pace that remains manageable.
As with any newer therapeutic approach, research on DBR continues to develop.

What is EMDR therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma-focused therapy that
helps the brain process distressing experiences that may not have been fully integrated.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation—often eye movements—while working with memories,
emotions, beliefs, and physical sensations associated with difficult experiences.

How is DBR different from EMDR?

Both DBR and EMDR are trauma-focused approaches, but they enter the processing of traumatic
experiences somewhat differently.
EMDR typically works with traumatic memories and associated beliefs, emotions, and body
sensations while using bilateral stimulation.
DBR begins even earlier in the brain’s response to threat, focusing on the orienting response and
subtle physical tension that occurs before many of the emotions and defensive reactions we
typically associate with trauma.
Neither is inherently “better.” Different approaches may be more useful for different people or at
different points in therapy.

What is Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy?

Internal Family Systems, or IFS, offers a compassionate way of understanding the different
“parts” of ourselves.
For example, one part of you might desperately want connection while another wants to pull
away. A part may be highly critical while another feels frightened or ashamed.
Rather than trying to eliminate these parts, IFS helps us become curious about what they’re
protecting and develop a more compassionate relationship with ourselves.

What is AEDP therapy?

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) is an attachment-focused, emotion-
centered approach to therapy.
AEDP places particular emphasis on creating a safe, genuine therapeutic relationship and helping
people experience emotions that may previously have felt overwhelming or unsafe.
An important principle of AEDP is that healing happens not only by processing pain, but also by
noticing and deepening experiences of connection, strength, relief, compassion, and positive
change.

How do you decide which therapy approach is best for each client?

I don’t believe therapy should be one-size-fits-all.
I draw from several approaches, including AEDP, DBR, EMDR, IFS, attachment theory, and
nervous-system-informed therapy. Which approach we use depends on what you’re experiencing,
what we’re working on, how your nervous system responds, and what seems most helpful to you.
You don’t need to choose a therapy modality before you come in. That’s my job to help us think
through together.

Can you combine DBR, EMDR, IFS, and AEDP during treatment?

Yes. I often integrate approaches rather than treating them as completely separate forms of
therapy.
For example, AEDP may help us work relationally and emotionally, IFS may help us understand
protective parts, and DBR or EMDR may help process traumatic experiences that continue to
activate the nervous system.
The goal isn’t to use as many techniques as possible. It’s to use what helps you heal.

Practical Questions

What if I’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t help?

This is something I hear frequently, particularly from people who have spent years in therapy and
understand themselves very well.
Insight is important—but sometimes insight isn’t enough.
You may know exactly why you react a certain way and still find yourself having the same
reaction. When that happens, it may be helpful to work not only with thoughts and insight, but
also with emotions, attachment patterns, body responses, and the nervous system.
Having therapy not help in the past doesn’t necessarily mean therapy can’t help. It may mean you
need a different kind of therapeutic experience.

Is everything I share in therapy confidential?

Therapy is confidential, with certain exceptions required by law and professional ethics. These
generally involve situations such as an immediate risk of serious harm or circumstances in which
reporting is legally required.

We’ll review confidentiality and its limits when we begin working together, and you’re always
welcome to ask questions about it.

What if I feel nervous about starting therapy?

That’s completely understandable.
Starting therapy means talking with someone you don’t yet know about things that may be very
personal. You don’t have to walk into the first session ready to tell me everything.
We start where you are. Building trust is part of therapy—not something you’re expected to
arrive with.

What should I do before my first appointment?

You don’t need to prepare a perfect history or figure out exactly what you want to say.
It can be helpful to think about what has been bothering you lately, what you’d like to be
different, and what prompted you to reach out now.
But it’s also perfectly okay to arrive saying, “I’m not sure where to start.”
We’ll start there.

How much does therapy cost?

Individual therapy sessions are $195 for a 50-minute session. Couples therapy sessions are $220
for a 50-minute session. I am a private-pay therapist and do not bill insurance directly.
If your insurance includes out-of-network mental health benefits, you may be eligible for partial
reimbursement. I can provide the documentation you need to submit a claim to your insurance
company.