Compassionate, trauma-informed therapy for teens, young adults, parents, and families rooted in principles of interpersonal neurobiology, attachment science, and somatic healing.
Therapy provided in-person in North County San Diego and via telehealth across California and Illinois
Strategic partnerships with schools and organizations to create conditions where every young person belongs and thrives. I consult with leaders and teams on program design, implementation, and professional development—building organizational knowledge and capacity to apply principles of adolescent brain science, positive youth development, trauma healing and mental health into youth-serving work.
Presentations and workshops on adolescent development, parenting with the brain in mind, building healthy and resilient families, and trauma informed & healing centered practices for community based groups.
Adolescence is a time of extraordinary opportunity. The years between ages 10 and 25 mark a period of rapid growth, development, and learning.
During this period young people discover and adapt to the world around them, forging their sense of who they are and who they aspire to be. Through relationships and experiences, they learn to make decisions, manage their emotions, and create deeper connections with peers, romantic partners, and people in their communities.
With support, they build resilience and develop interests, passions, and meaningful goals that shape their adult lives. Understanding what science tells us about this critical period helps us create the conditions where all young people can thrive – in our families, schools, and communities.
Adolescence—spanning ages 10 to 25—represents a period of both extraordinary possibility and significant vulnerability. During these years, young people’s brains are incredibly malleable, being shaped by every relationship and experience they encounter. The latest neuroscience illuminates the conditions that adolescent brains need to develop optimally, yet many parents, caregivers, and youth serving professionals do not have easy access to the latest science or its implications for teaching, parenting, learning and development and most of our institutions remain organized around outdated understandings of youth development. This mismatch creates misunderstandings and conflicts both in schools and families. However, with knowledge and support, we can all learn to build attuned relationships and create conditions for healthy youth development and well-being. We have the power to transform how we understand and support young people by designing our systems—from schools to families—to be truly responsive to their developmental needs, especially during this critical youth mental health crisis.
True well-being extends far beyond the absence of “symptoms” or achieving traditional markers of success like good grades. Thriving encompasses something much deeper: young people building supportive relationships, developing a strong sense of identity, personal agency, and meaningful ways to contribute to their…
No single person, institution, or system can support youth thriving alone – it truly takes a village filled with adults in families, schools, after school programs, community clinics, health agencies, recreation centers, and places of employment who have the knowledge, skills, support, and well-being to collaborate on behalf of young people’s needs…
