Frequently Asked Questions

I provide therapy online for adults located anywhere in California.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) is offered in person in the Bay Area.

Many of the people I work with are capable, thoughtful, high-achieving adults who appear to be doing well on the outside — while struggling inside. Concerns that people often seek help with:

• Anxious, stressed, burned out, or overwhelmed
• Caught in perfectionism, procrastination, or overdrive
• Disconnected from themselves or others
• Highly self-critical
• Stuck in people-pleasing or over-responsibility
• Reactive to criticism, conflict, or rejection
• Unable to relax even when nothing is wrong

I also work with trauma and complex childhood trauma (cPTSD), imposter syndrome, relationship difficulties, and other patterns that can develop from ways your nervous system learned to respond in childhood that are no longer adaptive.

I bring more than 20 years (since 2003) of experience working with a wide range of concerns and draw from several trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches to tailor therapy to you for your needs and goals.

This work isn't only about coping better.

I provide integrative talk therapy. And, when appropriate, I also work with the deeper patterns underlying your distress — including old survival responses, traumatic activation, and beliefs about yourself that may have developed much earlier in life.

The aim is not simply to understand why something happens, but to help you get unstuck from limiting behaviors, a harsh critic and other patterns that impede your enjoyment of life.

My approach is trauma-informed, experiential, and evidence-based.

Depending on your needs, our work may include:

• Attachment-Focused EMDR
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (somatic therapy)
• Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST) and parts work
• The Flash Technique
• Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

We tailor these approaches according to what seems most appropriate for you, your nervous system, and your goals for a thriving life.

Therapy is different for everyone, but over time the work may help you:

• Feel less anxious and reactive
• Develop greater resilience and self-compassion
• Feel more grounded and embodied
• Loosen perfectionism, people-pleasing, and other old adaptive patterns
• Improve boundaries and relationships
• Respond rather than automatically react
• Live with greater agency and authenticity

The aim is to increase your capacity to meet the moment with resourcefulness and agency instead of being taken over by old patterns.

I generally recommend weekly sessions, especially when we're doing deeper behavior change or trauma work.

Consistency helps us build momentum and gives the work the needed continuity to deepen over time. It seems to anchor better into your nervous system at a weekly cadence.

As you feel better and changes become more established, we can taper sessions when appropriate.

A standard therapy session is 50 minutes.

Longer sessions can also be arranged and are often helpful for therapies such as EMDR and somatic work where additional time can help deepen change.

There isn't one timeline that fits everyone. It depends on what brings you to therapy, how long the patterns have been present, and how deep a change you are looking for.

You will likely begin to feel more resilient and better able to regain calm fairly soon. Deeper change usually take longer, particularly when we're working with patterns that became wired into your nervous system over many years.

The work moves through a natural progression:

Building resources and greater capacity → processing trauma and reducing triggers → updating old beliefs and patterns → integrating those changes into everyday life.

Healing isn't always linear. At times, working with painful material can briefly bring difficult feelings to the surface.

Some people's goals are to resolve their trauma symptoms. If not dealing with trauma symptoms, others reach a point where they feel more clarity, more grounded, less reactive, and better able to navigate life on their own.

As you feel better, sessions can taper to twice monthly or monthly.

Sometimes the therapeutic relationship isn't a good fit. Sometimes the approach does not match what you need.

And when old patterns or trauma are deeply ingrained, insight-oriented talk therapy alone may not be enough to shift patterns that have become deeply embedded in the nervous system.

You may understand why you react a certain way and still find that your nervous system responds before your thinking mind has a chance to intervene.

Trauma-informed approaches such as EMDR, somatic therapy, parts work, and Flash give us additional ways of working with patterns that aren't easily reached through talking and insight alone.

Absolutely.

Respect for diversity and social justice are core values in my practice. I strive to create a space that is welcoming and affirming of LGBTQI+ people, BIPOC clients, immigrants, and people from a wide range of backgrounds and identities. We are all human beings worthy of respect, care and the opportunity to thrive.

Therapy can also include exploring the impact of discrimination, marginalization, systemic oppression, and other experiences that affect your sense of safety, belonging, and well-being.

My fee is $290 for a 50-minute therapy session.

My fee reflects the community standards for my 20+ years of experience and skill, as well as my extensive training in trauma-informed, evidence-based therapies.

Depending on openings in my caseload, I may have a couple of sliding-scale slots available for clients with demonstrated financial need.

Payment can be made through Zelle or PayPal.

My practice is private pay.

I provide a Superbill receipt to submit to your insurance company for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Depending on your plan, a Superbill may also serve as documentation for HSA reimbursement for qualified therapy expenses.

Reimbursement varies by insurance plan and isn't guaranteed. I recommend checking your out-of-network mental health benefits directly with your insurance company.

If you do not have insurance or are not using insurance to pay for your care, you generally have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate explaining the expected cost of your care.

You can ask for a Good Faith Estimate before scheduling services, and I'll provide one as required by federal law.

If a bill from a provider is at least $400 more than that provider's Good Faith Estimate, you may be eligible to dispute the bill through the federal patient-provider dispute resolution process.

Please keep a copy of your Good Faith Estimate for your records.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy combines prescribed ketamine with psychotherapy before, during, and after the medicine experience.

Ketamine has been safely used as an anesthetic for decades. Over approximately the past 25 years, researchers and clinicians have worked with ketamine in an attempt to treat various mental health conditions, especially depression.

Although ketamine is not FDA-approved specifically for psychiatric treatment, clinicians can legally prescribe it for this purpose — a common medical practice known as off-label use.

In KAP, ketamine can temporarily change the way you experience thoughts, emotions, memories, and your usual sense of self. Psychotherapy helps you explore what emerges and, importantly, integrate changes into your life.

Ketamine can create greater psychological distance from ordinary ways of thinking and reacting.

Fear and defenses may soften. Memories, emotions, and associations may become more accessible with ketamine's buffering effect. Experiences that ordinarily feel overwhelming may be easier to approach with curiosity and self-compassion.

Ketamine also promotes brain flexibility, neuroplasticity — the brain's capacity for learning and change.

Together, these effects can create an opportunity to approach old patterns from a different vantage point rather than simply understanding them intellectually.

Ketamine itself doesn't do the healing.

Rather, it can create conditions for greater access to your own inner healing intelligence — the clear, wise part of you that can make connections, recognize what matters, and facilitate greater well-being and choice.

My role is to facilitate your connection to your inner healing intelligence.

During ketamine journeys, I'm a warm presence to accompany you, stay curious with you, help you explore what emerges, and support you in feeling safe throughout your journey.

At lower, psycholytic doses, you generally remain conversational and aware of the room. You may feel more emotionally open, less defended, and better able to explore memories, gain clarity and greater self-compassion, helped by ketamine's buffering effect.

At higher doses, the experience is more psychedelic and inwardly immersive. There may be dreamlike imagery, self-compassion, or feelings of connectedness with others, awe, or spiritual attunement.

Neither dosage is inherently better.

The therapeutic value isn't determined by how intense or psychedelic the experience is.

The process generally includes four stages:

1. Screening

Before we begin, a medical provider and psychiatric professional determine whether ketamine treatment is appropriate and safe for you.

2. Preparation

We usually meet for 1–3 sessions before your first medicine journey.

We build trust, discuss any relevant history, clarify your intentions, and talk through what to expect and how you'd like me to support you.

3. Medicine Session

Medicine sessions generally last 2.5–3 hours.

You take your prescribed sublingual ketamine and settle in with an eye mask and instrumental music curated to follow the arc of the experience.

The setting is calm and comfortable, and I'm nearby as an attuned presence throughout.

There is nothing you need to perform or accomplish. Just be curious and engage with what arises.

You'll need to arrange transportation home, as you cannot drive for the remainder of the day.

4. Integration

We meet within 48–72 hours and usually again the following week to explore what emerged and how you might integrate your experience into daily life.

We may also use EMDR, somatic work, or parts work to deepen what emerged during your low-dose journey, or in integration sessions.

Integration asks:

How might your experience change the way you relate to yourself and live a better life?

People often describe ketamine as spacious, dreamlike, reflective, or uplifting.

Both high and low doses create a non-ordinary state of consciousness. At low doses this is mild and builds as the dosage increases.

Images, sensations, memories, emotions, and unexpected associations may unfold without a need to organize or control them.

Not every journey is blissful. A session may feel peaceful, joyful, poignant, confusing, challenging, spiritual — or some combination of these.

It is helpful to greet whatever emerges in a KAP session with openness. And I'm present throughout, as a journey companion and guide who encourages curiosity, asks questions to stimulate reflection, and ensures you feel safe and your needs are attended to.

That's understandable.

Ketamine can produce psychedelic experiences at higher doses, but lower-dose psycholytic sessions tend to be more conversational and reflective.

We begin at a lower dose and see how you respond. You’ll increase the dosage as you feel comfortable doing so, while within the parameters of your prescription.

We prepare carefully, dosing is determined with your prescriber, and I'm with you throughout the session. Future doses can be adjusted based on your experience, preferences, and the guidance of your prescriber.

Not every ketamine journey feels easy.

Difficult emotions, memories, or images can arise. That doesn't mean anything has gone wrong. Quite the contrary, challenging experiences are often the most meaningful parts of the therapeutic work.

If a journey becomes challenging, rather than push away difficult material, I help you approach whatever arises with curiosity while staying connected to see it through and provide safety.

The acute effects of ketamine generally subside as the medicine wears off. Feelings or insights stirred by the experience may continue afterward and can be explored during integration.

There isn't one number that's right for everyone.

Many people begin with a series of approximately 6 medicine sessions, with integration woven throughout.

In my practice, I find weekly spacing of KAP journeys is the most beneficial.

The number and dose depend on your needs, response, goals, finances and the recommendations of your treatment team. We assess how the work is affecting you as we go rather than treating the process as a set number.

Ketamine has been used in medicine for decades and has a well-established history of medical use. But it isn't right for everyone.

Medical and psychiatric screening is required before beginning.

Temporary effects can include dizziness, nausea, increased blood pressure or heart rate, sedation, dissociation, and disorientation. Anti-nausea medication can be prescribed and taken beforehand.

Your medical team of providers determines whether ketamine is appropriate for you and reviews medical risks with you.

Some ketamine clinics focus primarily on administering the medicine.

KAP intentionally incorporates psychotherapy before, during, and after the medicine experience. In my practice, preparation, therapeutic support during the journey, and integration are all central to the process.

The medicine creates an opportunity.

What we do with that opportunity matters.

For much more about the process, experience, safety, neuroplasticity, and integration, visit my Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy page.

Psychotherapy before and after a medicine session may qualify for out-of-network reimbursement depending on your plan and benefits. Coverage for the extended medicine session varies, and one hour may be eligible for reimbursement.

Your ketamine prescription and medical services are handled separately by the provider.

I'm happy to discuss my fees for KAP and provide a Superbill you can use for potential reimbursement from your insurance plan.