THERAPY FOR Anger, anxiety, and the impacts of complex trauma
You aren’t a problem that needs fixing.
You may be self-aware, capable, and able to explain exactly why you respond the way you do. You may also be exhausted from managing everything so well while something underneath still feels unresolved.
Therapy gives us room to look beyond your immediate symptoms. We can understand what your mind, body, and relationships have been responding to, including the experiences and protective strategies that shaped how you learned to move through the world.
The goal is not to make you better at pushing through, or to give you more ways to tolerate an environment that is causing you distress. No thank you. My goal is to help you have more choice in how you respond to stressors, less shame about what you need (and the fact that you have needs!), and the ability to actually trust yourself.
THE THINGS YOU LEARNED TO DO TO SURVIVE ARE NOT PROOF THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU.
THERAPY FOR ADULTS, TEENS, AND COUPLES
ADULTS
You want people to think you’ve got it all together, right? To see you as a success or stable or whatever the thing is. Meanwhile you’re carrying anxiety, anger, exhaustion, or shame that other people rarely see. Maybe you understand where it comes from but still find yourself overreacting, shutting down, overfunctioning, or pushing through. Therapy can help you understand what is driving those responses and find options beyond repeating the cycle or blaming yourself.
TEENS
Being a teenager is trying to figure out who you are while everyone in your life seems to have an opinion about who you should be. Therapy offers a space to talk honestly about anger, anxiety, identity, relationships, body image, family, and pressure without being treated like you are the problem. It’s a place free from needing to protect the adults in the room from how you actually feel.
COUPLES
Couples often start with knowing what they fight about but having no idea why the same conflict keeps taking over. Our work slows down what happens between you, including the anger, defensiveness, distance, and old protective responses each person brings into the relationship. I’m not here to be the judge of ‘rightness’. The work here is understanding the cycle so both of you have more choice in what happens next.
THE PRACTICAL STUFF
WHERE
I offer in-person therapy in Kansas City and secure virtual sessions for clients located throughout Missouri.
FEES
Individual and teen therapy: $150 per session
Couples therapy: $175 per session
GETTING STARTED
We can start with a quick phone consultation. Ten to fifteen minutes that gives us a chance to talk about what you’re looking for, I can answer any initial questions you might have, and see if working together feels like a good fit.
OR
Skip straight to scheduling an initial appointment and we can go from there.
Questions you might actually have about therapy
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It depends on what you need most that day. We might start with a specific topic or experience, or we might spend twenty minutes on something that seemed “not that important” until suddenly it is. You do not need to arrive with an agenda or any sort of organized emotional presentation.
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A lot. Ask me to slow down, be more direct, explain why I am asking something, give you more structure, or stop circling a topic. You can tell me something landed badly or that an approach is not working for you. I am genuinely glad to know that kind of feedback. Therapy works better when you get to have a voice in it.
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Absolutely. I always keep a few snacks and waters stocked if we are meeting in the office, but you can bring your own too! Coffee, lunch, or the snack you have been carrying around for three days. Don’t worry about eating in front of me, you can even ask if we can eat together if that would be helpful for you. Fed and hydrated brains work better. And you definitely do not earn bonus therapy points for being hungry.
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“I have no idea what to talk about” is a completely valid thought to share. TBH those days can turn into some of my favorite sessions. We can talk about your week, the thing you keep replaying, the feeling you can’t explain, or the suspiciously intense reaction you had to a minor inconvenience. We’ll find our way in.
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Yes to all of it. You can swear, cry, share dark humor, get the giggles, lose your train of thought, or decide you are done talking about something for today. Therapy doesn’t have to “look serious” every minute for it to be meaningful.
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Please. We can draw, color, use cards, make a wildly unprofessional-looking diagram, move around, take a walk, lay on the floor, or stare at the wall while your brain catches up. Talking is welcome, but it is not the only way to do therapy.
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I do not currently accept insurance, so sessions are private pay. I can provide a superbill for you to submit if your plan includes out-of-network benefits. Insurance can be confusing, so I recommend checking your plan to see what reimbursement coverage you may have.