about me
I draw on my education, training and personal life to assist my clients with their challenges. I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I was born and raised in Brazil, and traveled extensively until I settled in California, where I started graduate school in my mid-twenties. I am fluent in Portuguese and proficient in Spanish.
I have been working in the mental health field since 1994, and as a licensed psychotherapist since 2003. The breadth of my exposure encompasses a psychiatric hospital, several community mental health agencies in San Francisco, a college campus clinic, outpatient day treatments, elementary schools, a trauma center at Rady’s Children Hospital, a group practice and my private practice, where I see individuals and couples. I find that my professional experience has been extremely rich – it has kept me humble, able to meet my clients where they are.
I have helped clients with a variety of concerns. I have had a particular interest and experience in the following areas:
Anxiety
Depression
Acculturation issues (adjustment to life in another culture; ambivalence about settling down; challenges specific to bi-cultural couples; lack of support; prejudice)
Neurodiversity
Healing from traumatic experiences, including abuse or neglect, and victims of crime (as an adult, or as a child)
Patterns of unstable relationships (frequently being left by partners; having difficulty committing to a relationship; often being misunderstood; fear of abandonment)
Postpartum adjustment and/or depression
Grief and loss (as it relates to a number of issues, such as death, separation, divorce, poor health, immigration, grief over not having had a healthy childhood)
Parenting difficulties
Trouble asserting oneself and setting limits
Excessive perfectionism
“We’re only as needy
as our unmet needs.”