About Margaret

I approach my work with clients from a combination of psychodynamic psychotherapy (based on Freudian theory), attachment theory, and interpersonal neurobiology. Our past experiences, including in infancy, influence our current thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The unconscious mind creates our defenses and drives self-defeating behaviors. Repressed feelings feed symptoms of depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, disrupting relationships, and interfering with the ability to enjoy life. Exploring how outdated defense mechanisms impede current function creates space for growth and freedom in our lives. Gaining a new understanding of past experiences and relationships can help us in our current lives as we develop new coping skills and strategies for living.

Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), a psychodynamic psychotherapy model, informs all of my clinical work. ISTDP promotes accelerated symptom reduction in depression, anxiety, PTSD, and somatoform disorders. In addition, I incorporate a variety of therapeutic interventions as part of the process depending on individual needs. These include Emotional Transformation Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive-behavioral therapy, deep relaxation and mindfulness work, radical acceptance, and clinical hypnosis.

For my work with couples, I use the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT). I began studying with Stan Tatkin, Psy D, the developer of PACT and co-founder of the PACT Institute in 2012. I continue to have monthly case consultations with Stan and am a coach for the PACT Institute.

My commitment to healing and the therapeutic process includes not only my clients’ healing but my own. I firmly believe that effective, ethical therapists do their own work. I can’t expect my clients to engage in the kind of vulnerability that occurs in therapy without having experienced it myself. A therapist’s understanding of hitting a plateau or pushing through resistance is only as good as their own first-hand knowledge. As a therapist, I can only go as deep with my clients as I have been myself.

I make a concerted effort to do my own internal anti-racism work, as well as addressing my privilege as related to other marginalized groups. Many of my clients have lived experiences with racial and cultural trauma with which I have no first-hand experience. This, as well as implicit biases related to sexism, hetero-normism, transphobia, ageism, poverty, and ableism show up whenever humans come together. This includes in the therapy room and in my work with clients. I strive to identify and challenge my own internal biases and understand my clients’ individual, inter-generational, and societal experiences of trauma. I value relationships with friends and colleagues in which we challenge each other’s inherent prejudice. I am a cis-gendered white woman and my pronouns are she/her. I seek to provide an affirming, inclusive, justice-oriented space for healing and to support my client's healing through an anti-oppressive, anti-racist lens. I'm committed to providing quality mental healthcare to individuals of all races, identities, expressions, orientations, and family backgrounds.

On a personal level, I'm a bit of a neuroscience geek and love learning about the latest research regarding how our brains function and how that applies to the healing process. I'm also passionate about knitting and other fiber arts and take almost any opportunity to get my creative juices flowing.