Personalized Therapy for Adults and Couples
About Steph
I am a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in treating anxiety, addiction, trauma, and relationship challenges. I am a “heady”-yet-mindful person who works well with clients struggling with over-thinking, people-pleasing, self-doubt, and perfectionism.
Many of my clients are creative, sensitive, driven individuals who come from dysfunctional families and want to feel calmer and more free. I see entrepreneurs, co-founders, parents, couples, and individuals struggling in their relationships. I have a private practice in Marin County (Bay Area), CA, where I offer virtual and face-to-face therapy, consultation, and coaching for individuals and relationships.
My approach is integrative and highly personalized, pulling from CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Control Mastery Theory, relational therapy, mindfulness, and a hearty sense of humor. I want you to feel that you can truly be yourself with me.
In addition to talk therapy, I offer structured, evidenced-based treatment modalities for PTSD, OCD, and other anxiety disorders, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which I integrate and apply in a personalized manner.
In my view, everyone who comes to therapy has a sense of what they need, and it is my job to understand what that is. Each session should feel useful, and progress happens quickly when the therapist and client are on the same page. I invite feedback and collaboration with my clients and believe that fit matters. Let's chat and see if it feels right to you!
If you are potentially interested in working together, please get in touch to schedule a free intro phone call.
License # PSY33706
Testimonials
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I've had about a dozen therapists in my life, and Steph is just different. She's the only therapist who has actually helped me in a serious way. She's obviously very intelligent, but she also has a great sense of humor, and this was really important for me. She's the only therapist I've seen who really understood what I was dealing with, and I honestly don't know where I'd be if I hadn't found her.
— AP
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Before seeing Steph, I had never been to therapy and never thought I'd go. My family always said that therapy was for "crazy people." But I was in a lot of pain, and my work and personal life were falling apart. My wife asked me to get help, and as soon as I met Steph, my whole view of therapy changed. It was so easy to connect with her, and she quickly figured out what was going on with me. She almost immediately identified that I had OCD, which I had never heard of. In five months of therapy, I went from feeling suicidally depressed, barely functioning, and at risk of losing my job, to feeling better than I ever have. Not only did I learn how to improve my OCD, but I got a handle on anxiety in general. Since engaging in therapy, people at work have been telling me that they're proud of me, saying 'you seem more concentrated and in control, and you're not forgetting stuff as much.' I'm hearing this from my wife, friends, and coworkers. I also feel more motivated to take on new things because I'm not afraid to mess it up. I'm just not allowing stressors to control my life."
— DG
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I never thought I would get to the point where I wasn’t carrying around the trauma with me into all of my interactions. I can see now that these painful things happened to me but that they are not who I am. There's a lot of stigma in my family about therapy, and it took a lot for me to try it. I made it really hard for Steph at the beginning of therapy too, but she didn't give up on me. I cannot express how grateful I am to her.
— EL
Services
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Individual Therapy
I offer short and long-term therapy for adults of all ages experiencing challenges related to:
Recovery from Trauma
Addiction (to Behaviors and Substances)
Relationship Distress
Communication / Social Skills
ADHD / Organization & Planning
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
General Anxiety
Perfectionism
Panic
Social Anxiety
Career Uncertainty
Depression
Grief and Loss
Growing Up With Difficult Parents (e.g., Narcissistic, Absent, Erratic, Overbearing)
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Relationship Therapy
I offer relationship therapy for romantic partners, family members, close friends, and business partners/cofounders. I believe that we are strongly influenced by our social connections and that the quality of our relationships can determine the quality of our lives. Our partners and friends spend much more time with us than a therapist can, and so they may have even more power to help us change (or not change) in ways we want. Thus, it is my passion, and often an aim of my therapy, to help my clients find and develop high-quality connections.
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Consultation & Coaching
Sometimes “therapy” feels too heavy or more serious than what we need, and actually, we just want to improve our lives or better achieve our goals. Maybe things are generally going well, but something is missing, and we want help to find out what that is. I am happy to meet for brief consultations, to offer some perspective. You also don’t have to be in clinical distress to work with me. I don’t believe that psychology is all about symptoms, and there is more to life than simply not suffering.
More about Steph
I earned my bachelor’s from UCLA and my doctorate from the Wright Institute, in Berkeley, CA. I then completed the highly competitive Predoctoral Internship at VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System, treating Veterans with co-occurring PTSD, addiction, and chronic pain challenges. After finishing the Postdoctoral Fellowship at Pacific Anxiety Group (PAG), I joined the clinic and continue to work there part-time, serving primarily Stanford faculty and staff.
My training in psychology focused on clinical assessment and psychotherapy with adults of all ages in the areas of trauma, crisis, suicide, grief, anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. I have worked in a range of treatment settings, including community mental health, intensive outpatient, inpatient, and residential treatment.
I utilize and integrate mindfulness-based, emotion-focused, relational/psychodynamic, and other evidence-based psychotherapy approaches, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Cognitive Processing therapy (CPT).
While many of these treatment modalities have value to offer, they can’t be applied well (in my opinion) without careful consideration of each individual’s needs. Many therapists are trained in evidence-based treatments, and yet research suggests that some therapists are reliably more effective than others. Progress in therapy also seems to depend more on the fit between client and therapist than the type of therapy used. For this reason, I like to chat with potential clients before working together, to see if it feels like a good fit. Please get in touch, and we can have a free consultation call.