Some of the most useful work in therapy isn't insight — it's a skill you can actually use the next time things get hard. DBT is where I go for that.

What is DBT?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a skills-based approach built around four areas: emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness. The "dialectical" part means holding two things as true at once — you're doing the best you can, and you need to do better or differently. Neither cancels the other out, and that tension is actually the point.

How do you use DBT in your practice?

I'm trained in DBT and have been part of comprehensive DBT programs, so I know the model from the inside — not just the skills handouts, but how the full structure is designed to work together. In my private practice, I bring that training into individual therapy as DBT-informed skills, rather than running a separate formal DBT track with group sessions and phone coaching. That means the skills — like distress tolerance techniques, emotion regulation strategies, and interpersonal effectiveness tools — get taught and practiced directly inside our one-on-one work, tailored to what's actually coming up for you, rather than delivered as a fixed curriculum.

Who is this useful for?

Anyone dealing with intense emotions that feel hard to manage in the moment, relational patterns that keep repeating, difficulty tolerating distress without making things worse, or a general sense of being at the mercy of your own reactions. DBT skills are often associated with borderline personality disorder specifically, and they're genuinely effective there — but they're just as useful for anxiety, trauma responses, and everyday emotional overwhelm that has nothing to do with a personality disorder diagnosis.

What does this look like in a session?

Practical and collaborative. We might name a pattern that's been showing up, then work through a specific skill you can use the next time it does — not as homework you're handed, but as something we build and practice together so it actually sticks. Over time, the goal is less "manage the crisis" and more "the crisis doesn't build the same way it used to."

How does this fit with your other training?

DBT skills work well alongside Brainspotting and EMDR — DBT gives you tools to stay regulated day to day, while Brainspotting and EMDR do the deeper work of processing what's underneath the dysregulation in the first place. I move between them based on what a session or a season of your life actually calls for.

I offer DBT-informed therapy in-person at my Agoura Hills, CA office, and virtually for clients throughout California.