Specializing in Treatment of ADHD, Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Couples & Family Therapy
ADHD & Neurodiversity
Some of the most creative, passionate, and deeply feeling people I've had the privilege of working with are neurodivergent. If you have ADHD or simply know that your brain works differently that's not a flaw. That's you. The challenges are real, of course. Life in a world that isn’t always designed for your brain can be exhausting. But so much of what gets labeled as a problem, the intensity, the curiosity, the way you feel things deeply, is also where your greatest strengths live.
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ADHD is a disorder of executive function and self-regulation affecting attention, emotional regulation, impulse control, working memory, and time perception in ways that go far beyond simply being distracted. For many of my clients, an ADHD diagnosis later in life reframes an entire personal history. Suddenly the struggles make sense. That reframe alone can be profoundly healing.
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My approach draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy adapted specifically for ADHD, which addresses the thought patterns, avoidance cycles, and shame that so often accompany the diagnosis. I incorporate psychoeducation because understanding your own neurology is genuinely empowering, as well as practical executive function coaching, emotional regulation strategies, and strengths-based exploration of how your particular brain actually works best.
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You've likely spent enough time trying to fit a mold that was never made for you. This is a space where you don't have to.
Anxiety
Clinically, anxiety is not simply worry. It's a dysregulated nervous system that has learned to anticipate threat sometimes for very good historical reasons. The racing thoughts, the physical tension, the avoidance, the need for reassurance or control these aren't character flaws. They are a system on high alert that never quite got the signal that it's safe to stand down.
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My approach to treating anxiety is evidence-based and integrative. I draw from a variety of evidence based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,which helps identify the thought patterns and avoidance behaviors that keep anxiety locked in place. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which shifts the goal from eliminating anxiety to changing your relationship with it, building psychological flexibility so anxiety no longer dictates what you do or don't do with your life. Where anxiety has deeper relational or developmental roots, I bring in attachment-based frameworks to explore how and why the nervous system learned to respond this way.
Somatic awareness is also part of my work. Anxiety lives in the body in the chest, the jaw, the gut and learning to recognize and regulate those physical signals is a meaningful part of treatment that talk therapy alone doesn't always address.
What this looks like in practice is a structured but flexible process. We identify your specific anxiety patterns, understand what's driving and maintaining them, and build real skills not just insight that allow you to move through the world with greater ease and confidence.
Depression
Depression is one of the most common reasons people find their way to my office and one of the most misunderstood. Not because people don't take it seriously, but because depression has a way of making people believe they should be able to handle it on their own. That if they just tried harder, thought more positively, or pushed through long enough, it would lift. Depression isn't a mindset problem. It's a whole-person experience affecting mood, cognition, energy, relationships, and physical health in ways that are real and often profound.
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Clinically, my approach to treating depression is integrative and evidence-based. I draw primarily from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which helps identify and shift the thought patterns and behaviors that maintain depression. I incorporate Behavioral Activation, which works by gradually re-engaging people with meaningful activity to interrupt the withdrawal cycle that depression thrives on. Where early relational experiences are relevant, I bring in attachment-based and psychodynamic frameworks to explore the deeper roots of how depression developed and what keeps it alive.
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This is a collaborative process where we build a clear picture of your depression together, identify what's maintaining it, and develop a treatment approach that addresses both the symptoms and the underlying patterns driving them.
Couples Therapy
Most couples don't come to therapy because they've stopped loving each other. They come because something between them has gotten lost and they're not sure how to find their way back.
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By the time a couple sits across from me, they've usually been hurting for a while. The same arguments cycling through. The growing distance. The things left unsaid because it feels safer not to say them. I've seen it many times, and I want you to know that doesn't mean you're out of options. It means you need a different kind of conversation than the ones you've been having.
That's what I'm here for.
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My work with couples draws from Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Gottman Method, two of the most research-supported approaches available. We get underneath the conflict to what's actually driving it. The patterns, the disconnection, the moments where one of you is reaching and the other doesn't quite feel it. Understanding those dynamics is where real change begins.
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I work with couples navigating communication breakdowns, trust repair, intimacy struggles, parenting conflicts, and major life transitions. To help find what appeared to be lost.
Trauma
Trauma is one of the most misunderstood areas in mental health and one of the most common. In my fifteen years of clinical practice, I've worked with individuals carrying the weight of single-incident trauma, complex developmental trauma, and everything in between. What I've learned is that trauma is less about what happened and more about what it left behind.
Clinically, trauma impacts the nervous system in ways that are real and measurable. It shapes how we process threat, how we relate to others, and how safe we feel in our own bodies. The hypervigilance, the emotional reactivity, the difficulty trusting these aren't personality flaws or signs of weakness. They are adaptive responses to experiences that were genuinely overwhelming. Your system did what it needed to do to survive.
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My approach to trauma treatment is grounded in evidence-based practice while remaining deeply relational. I draw from frameworks including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, somatic awareness, and attachment-based approaches integrating techniques that address both the mind and the body, because trauma lives in both.
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Treatment is paced and collaborative. We build safety and stabilization first, developing the coping tools and therapeutic trust needed before moving into deeper processing work. Nothing is rushed. The goal is not simply symptom reduction it is sustainable healing that allows you to live more fully, relate more freely, and feel genuinely at home in your own life.
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If you've been wondering whether what you've experienced "qualifies" as trauma that question alone is worth exploring together.
Family Therapy
Families are complicated. Anyone who tells you otherwise probably hasn't sat in the middle of one that's hurting. I've sat with a lot of families, blended families trying to find their footing, parents and teenagers who feel like they're speaking completely different languages, siblings carrying old wounds that never quite healed, families navigating loss, divorce, addiction, or a crisis that came out of nowhere and changed everything. What I've learned is that by the time a family finds their way to therapy, everyone in the room has usually been trying really hard. They're just trying in ways that aren't quite reaching each other.
That's where I come in.
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Family therapy isn't about identifying who's the problem or assigning blame. In my experience, that's rarely the point and almost never the truth. What I'm looking for are the patterns the communication cycles that keep breaking down, the unspoken rules that everyone follows but nobody chose, the dynamics that made sense once and now keep the family stuck.
Clinically, I draw from solution focused brief family therapy, structural and systemic family therapy approaches, as well as emotionally focused techniques that help family members actually hear one another sometimes for the first time in a long time. The goal is to shift the patterns that aren't working and build something more honest, more connected, and more sustainable in their place.
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I work with families the same way I work with everyone — directly, warmly, and without judgment. Every person in the room deserves to feel heard. My job is to make sure that happens.
Eco-therapy at Vital Roots Wellness is a therapeutic approach that recognizes the powerful connection between human wellbeing and the natural world. Rooted in the belief that healing is most sustainable when it is grounded from within—and supported by our environment—eco-psychotherapy brings the clinical therapy process outdoors into natural settings.
Sessions may take place in parks, green spaces, or other quiet outdoor environments where nature becomes an active part of the therapeutic experience. The rhythms of the natural world—movement, seasons, growth, and rest—offer a calming and regulating backdrop that can deepen reflection, reduce stress, and support emotional processing. Being outdoors often helps clients feel more present, open, and connected, allowing therapy to unfold in a more embodied and intuitive way.
Eco-therapy is especially effective for addressing anxiety, depression, stress, life transitions, and burnout. Nature can naturally lower physiological arousal, increase mindfulness, and create a sense of perspective that supports insight and emotional regulation. Therapeutic interventions remain clinically grounded and intentional, while the environment itself provides added support for healing and self-discovery.
At Vital Roots Wellness, eco-therapy reflects the practice’s core philosophy: growth happens when we nurture our internal roots while staying connected to the world around us. Just as nature adapts and regenerates, clients are supported in developing resilience, balance, and a deeper sense of wellness—cultivated gently, authentically, and in harmony with the natural world.