Psychodynamic Individual Therapy in Los Angeles
Depth therapy for adults carrying trauma, anxiety, and the patterns that talk alone hasn't shifted, working with the body, the nervous system, and the relationships that shaped you.
Pasadena, CA · LCSW · Somatic, Relational & EMDR Therapy
Why understanding your patterns hasn't changed them
You've probably been to therapy before, maybe several rounds of it. You understand your patterns, you can trace where they started, and still the same anxiety, the same reactions, the same stuckness keep showing up. Insight got you far. On its own, it hasn't been enough.
That's often because what keeps us stuck doesn't only live in our thoughts: it lives in the body and the nervous system, laid down inside the relationships that shaped us. This is an embodied therapy practice: we work with all of it, not only the part you can put into words.
My approach is integrative and collaborative: depth psychotherapy through an attachment-focused lens, drawing on somatic and relational therapy, parts work, and EMDR to meet you where you are. Together, we explore the patterns underneath what keeps you stuck, and you stay the expert on your own life throughout.
How I work with individuals
Psychodynamic & relational therapy
So much of what we struggle with was learned in relationship, and it tends to shift in relationship too. I work from a relational and psychodynamic lens, staying curious about the beliefs and adaptations that once kept you safe and now keep you stuck, less interested in managing symptoms than in understanding what they've been protecting.
Somatic therapy
Somatic therapy works with the body as directly as the mind. We slow down and notice what's happening in real time (the tightening, the numbness, the impulse to flee or freeze) so the nervous system can settle instead of being overridden. It's also where grief can find somewhere to go, long after the words run out.
EMDR & attachment work
When trauma keeps firing in the present, EMDR can help the brain reprocess what got stuck, so an old memory stops setting off a present-day alarm. Paired with attachment-focused work, it reaches the templates formed long before you had words.
When trauma runs deep Complex PTSD and trauma
Some trauma comes from a single event. Complex PTSD comes from harm that repeated, often early, often inside the relationships that were supposed to be safe. It shows up less as a memory and more as a way of being: always braced, quick to shame, slow to trust. I don't treat complex PTSD as a flaw to fix but as an adaptation to understand.
Healing attachment and relational trauma
Attachment wounds and relational trauma (the harm that formed in connection with others) run especially deep. Healing relational trauma means working where it happened: in a steady, attuned relationship, at a pace your nervous system can trust. I bring somatic work and EMDR into this when it helps.
How complex PTSD can show upAlways braced, even when nothing is wrong
Quick to shame, slow to trust
Big reactions to small triggers, then numbness after
Relationships that feel dangerous just as they get close
A body that won't stand down even when you know you're safe
Who I work withIs depth therapy right for you?
I work with anxiety and panic, trauma, PTSD and complex PTSD, chronic stress and burnout, grief and loss, the emotional weight of chronic illness, and feeling disconnected from your body. In everyday terms, this work might be a fit if…
You've done talk therapy but the patterns persist
Anxiety or panic shows up without an obvious cause
You carry trauma or complex PTSD
You feel cut off from your body or your emotions
You're facing chronic illness or burnout
You're moving through grief or a hard transition
Old relationship patterns keep repeating
You want depth, not only coping strategies
“Knowing your patterns isn't the same as being free of them. The work happens in the distance between the two.”
My ValuesHow we work together
I won't hand you a set of coping skills and call it done. My job is to bring attention, skill, and steadiness to what you're carrying, then to help you make sense of it so it can actually shift, rather than just quiet down for a while.
Healing takes courage, and it doesn't have to be rushed.
My work is collaborative and anti-oppressive. I pay attention to the larger forces (culture, family, migration, the social and political weather you've lived inside) that shaped how you learned to cope. You're the expert on your life; I bring skill and steadiness to what you already know.
Getting StartedHow to begin individual therapy
01
Reach out
Book a consultation or send a note through the consultation form. I reply within 48 hours.
02
A free consultation
We’ll have a brief phone call so you can ask questions, get a feel for how I work, and decide if it feels like a good fit.
03
Your first session
We begin. The first few sessions focus on understanding your history, your goals, and what’s happening in your life right now.
FAQCommon questions about individual therapy
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Psychodynamic therapy works with the patterns underneath your symptoms: the beliefs, adaptations, and relational templates you built early and still live inside. That's what depth-oriented means in practice. Rather than stopping at symptom management, we work at the level where the pattern started, so change holds.
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No, not unless you ever wanted it and we'd discussed it explicitly first. Most somatic work is about noticing what's already happening in your body (sensation, tension, breath), not about being touched. You stay in control of that the whole time.
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“Somatic therapy” is an umbrella term. My work draws on parts of it (tracking sensation, working with the nervous system, and pairing it with EMDR and relational therapy) rather than one branded protocol.
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My fee is $250 per 50-minute session. I'm out-of-network (private pay), which keeps your care between us rather than on a medical record, and I can provide a monthly superbill you can submit to your insurance for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
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Relational therapy is built on the idea that we're shaped in relationship and heal in relationship. Instead of treating you as a set of symptoms, it treats patterns (including the ones that show up between us) as information about what you need.
Reaching out is the hardest part
Book a free 20-minute consultation and we'll take it from there.
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