first and foremost, i’m a practitioner.
everything else is just a super sweet cherry on top of a killer cake.
professional athletes.
my work with professional athletes has taught me something critical : turning off that competitive edge for high performers is nearly impossible. so i’ve learned to help athletes turn up the volume instead. this means an unrelenting focus on revealing what keeps athletes from their best work - both in the arena and out. i help optimize performance through growing a resilient mind and developing even stronger values. the end result is the best of both worlds: killer performance coupled with unbreakable integrity.
executives.
i knew early on in my graduate training that one degree was great but two was substantially better. the unique combination of holding both an mba and a doctorate degree has led to two things. one : a thriving business in my private practice and consulting projects. and two : a rare perspective that contributes to my work with executives and entrepreneurs alike. the blend of high emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and a strong business acumen is critical for any leader who is looking to truly elevate their performance and level up at work.
eating disorders.
i've worked with clients who struggle with eating disorders and disordered eating for the past two decades, with considerable experience in all settings : from residential to inpatient to outpatient and with adolescents and adults. as a seasoned expert and past treatment center director, i know that taking an honest look at your relationship to food can be painful. mainly because it is a reflection of your relationship with yourself. but criticism has no place in my office. instead… i let curiosity be the most powerful catalyst for change.
me in a nutshell.
i’m a licensed clinical psychologist.
i have my mba and consult for executives and high performing teams.
i’m part of the expert team on CNBC’s no retreat: business bootcamp.
i co-wrote the book, 10 rules for resilience: mental toughness for families.
i am the owner and founder of lighfbox.
i’ve spent over 23,000 direct clinical hours with clients.
i supervise other clinicians looking to elevate their own skills.
i’m a mother of two boys and a wife of one.
the outdoors is my sanctuary.
i love to run. and love to climb.
bam.
the longer version.
maybe it was the movie ordinary people. or the class project where you carry around the egg in a basket, as if it were a baby, and try not to drop it. i’m not sure. but something in 8th grade peaked my interest in humans. the rest is history.
and ever since then my life has gone pretty much as planned. mmm. okay, that’s not exactly true. but when it comes to my career, it’s relatively spot on. undergraduate was a primer for graduate school. graduate school was a primer for my post-doc. my post-doc was a primer for private practice. and so on. if i’m being transparent, the trajectory of my career isn’t super unconventional. but perhaps how i operate is.
fact: we don’t have a lot of time on this planet. and when people come to me for help, whether it’s because they are unhappy in their marriage, stalling in their career, being outperformed by fellow athletes, or falling into the abyss of addiction, i want to get sh*t done. i tell everyone who i see in our very first session that i’m not the kind of therapist that is going to chill back and ask softly, well… how does that make you feel? nah, that’s not me. that’s boring. i like to call myself an active therapist. no, not because i like running (which by the way i do) but because i like to be as active as my clients in the work that we do. listen, if you’re in my office, i want you to push yourself. i’m going to ask you to think hard, challenge your beliefs, call up your judgments, and put all that work into action. people don’t come to me for empathy - though i’m happy to give it. they come to me to start doing things differently. i expect a lot of myself and of my clients. and if you’re doing hard work, i wanna be right there with you, doing it too.
