The Work We’ll Do

My approach to therapy continues to be informed by the sociological lens. When we see humans within the broader contexts that shape their lives, like family systems, culture, relationships, and social expectations, it makes sense that we struggle to fit into every single cubby box that people have assigned to us at every single developmental stage in our lives. In my work, I utilize the Neuro-Affective Relational Model (N-ARM), a modern modality with deep roots in therapeutic approaches that explore how our early relationships shape the way we experience ourselves and others. Drawing from psychodynamic traditions, N-ARM helps you notice patterns that developed early in life—the ways your body, emotions, and relational habits learned to protect you—and brings awareness to how these patterns show up in the present moment. Narrative Therapy complements this by giving words and structure to the stories you’ve come to believe about yourself, helping you separate your identity from the coping strategies or beliefs that no longer serve you. Together, these approaches allow you to experience your patterns in real time, understand their origins, and experiment with new ways of relating to yourself and others, all within a supportive, non-judgmental space. This integration emphasizes awareness, meaning-making, and imagination, helping you cultivate greater choice, resilience, and self-compassion as you navigate your personal journey.

Over time, this integration supports a shift from shame-based identity to a more flexible and empowered sense of self. You’ll begin to recognize that you aren’t defined by your trauma or your survival strategies, but by your capacity for awareness and choice. N-ARM provides the relational and somatic foundation for this change, while Narrative Therapy offers the language and structure to make meaning of it. Used in conjunction with each other, you’ll move from “This is who I am” to “This is a story I learned—and I can relate to it differently,” opening space for new ways of being, relating, and understanding who you are.

As a clinician, I utilize the use of tarot cards only as a projective and symbolic tool. The archetypal imagery found in these cards reflect universal human experiences like challenge, growth, loss, resilience, and connection. Similar to other expressive or reflective practices in therapy, archetypal imagery provides a safe, symbolic space to explore these patterns in a way that goes beyond words, offering visual and emotional mirrors that can reveal hidden parts of yourself, spark insight, open curiosity, and explore identity in a non-shaming way. This creates space and language for you to understand your story and, more important, room to grow within it.

Integrating N-ARM & Narrative Therapy with Archetypal Imagery & Why it Works

Many of the patterns we struggle with: self-doubt, anxiety, relationship conflict, or feeling like you’re never good enough, aren’t just thoughts. They are deeply embodied experiences shaped by early relationships and life experiences. Talk therapy alone can sometimes keep us in the cognitive realm, but my approach gently expands beyond that. N-ARM helps us track what’s happening in the present moment (what we feel right this moment emotionally, relationally, and somatically) without pathologizing your experience, while Narrative Therapy helps us explore the stories you’ve come to believe about yourself, and supports you in reshaping them. Archetypal imagery provides a bridge between the two, allowing us to access deeper layers of experience in a way that feels safe, creative, and non-judgmental.

How Archetypal Imagery Functions in Therapy

Let’s say, for example, that you decide that you’re interested in exploring this archetypal imagery that I’m saying connects N-ARM and Narrative Therapies and you’re wondering what kinds of questions you could possibly ask yourself when looking at the cards that you pull from the deck. I’ll answer that question right here:

So instead of asking yourself, “What’s wrong with me?! Why can’t I just _____”, or “No matter what I do, I can’t stop feeling like ______”, or “I’ve been furious about ______ for ____ years, and I can’t move on!”, we might explore questions like:

“What part of this image feels familiar?”

“What do you notice in your body as you look at this?”

“What might this figure be experiencing or protecting?”

Questions like these make emotional hurdles feel a little less impossible to clear. The unclimbable mountain of trauma a little easier to scale. The wind that carries our ship from the doldrums. When we safely externalize and examine difficult patterns instead of identifying with them, we reduce shame and self-criticism and access insight that may not otherwise have emerged through words alone.

This integrated approach allows us to work simultaneously on embodied awareness—your ability to become more attuned to your emotional and nervous system responses in the present moment while making meaning of the origins of your patterns and the beliefs that sustain them. All while you explore new ways of understanding yourself, beyond limiting or inherited stories. And, as you continue to show up with mercy for yourself, you’ll feel less stuck in repetitive patterns, relate to yourself with more compassion and curiosity, and experience greater choice in how you respond to yourself and others.

I approach the work that I love with the belief that your patterns make sense in the context of your life. Rather than focusing on what is “wrong”, we’ll explore how the coping skills that once served to protect you may be showing up now in ways that no longer honor who you are now. Using both grounded therapeutic models and symbolic exploration, we’ll create space for you to understand yourself more deeply and connect with parts of yourself that may feel hidden or misunderstood. Through this process, you’ll begin to relate to yourself in ways that feel safe and supportive.