Psychotherapy
Learn more about my training, experience, and practice as a licensed psychotherapist at the Atlanta Center for Cognitive Therapy
Research / Academic
Learn more about research, teaching, and training experience and ongoing projects at Mercer University College of Health Professions and Emory University
Psychotherapy
Address life struggles, change problematic behaviors, and improve quality of life
As with many kinds of training, professional support can motivate and accelerate real change in unhelpful thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and habits. By looking into psychotherapists, you have already taken one of the most important steps to change direction toward where you want to be. Psychotherapy empowers you to face problems that feel insurmountable.
Recovery and resilience are possible.
I work with clients from a collaborative Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) orientation. I prioritize applying the best research-based techniques and assessment carefully and dynamically matched to individual characteristics and preferences. I apply behavioral, cognitive, motivational, acceptance and commitment, dialectical, and mindfulness-based approaches, with tailored goals for behavioral change in personal, social, and functional roles.
I am currently accepting new clients or referrals starting November 2023.
I work with clients ages 12+.
My current hours are Tuesday and Wednesday morning and afternoon.
Clients pay out of pocket by cash or card. Some insurances will reimburse at Out of Network rates.
I am working on joining several major insurance carriers but am not in-network anywhere at this time.
What you can expect
Psychotherapy and assessment are designed around you. Treatment planning, assessment, and therapy is unique to each person. However, you can be sure that the process will be: evidence-based, collaborative, challenging, and recovery/resilience goal-focused.
Evidence Based Practice (EBP)
EBP has three basic tenets: applying (1) the best research evidence with (2) clinical expertise (3) tailored to individual preferences and characteristics. I base treatment targets and the techniques applied to address them on empirical evidence from my own and others’ research. I build a strong supportive relationship with each person, which is the foundation on which real change can be initiated.
Collaborative Shared Decision-Making
You are the expert. As empathic as any therapist tries to be, you are the one who can assess problems, engage motivation, and make changes. Every decision, technique, and plan must be made collaboratively. If you are not an active member of your own treatment team, not much is likely to change. We will work to harness your strengths and reduce the impact of any limitations. You will understand and co-author each aspect of therapy, empowering you to recognize, utilize, and strengthen your own capabilities.
Challenge
Collaborative, strengths-based therapy is affirming and empowering. That also means it will be challenging. Therapy is work. Behavioral and personal change are difficult. Developing insight and self-compassion often involve stepping into the dark on the way to the light. “Feeling better” is a good goal, but our work will focus on more practical objectives. Additionally, the more work you do between sessions, the better the prognosis and treatment efficiency.
Recovery and Resilience Goal Focus
I believe everyone, including myself, can benefit from professional psychological support at some point or multiple points in life. However, I do not practice life-long therapy. I will work with you for as long as needed, not longer, to reach the personal and functional goals set out in the beginning of therapy and build a lifestyle and support system that supports those goals.
Teaching
Mercer University CHP: I worked as Assistant Professor at Mercer University’s College of Health Professions in the department of Clinical Psychology, an APA-accredited PsyD training program, from 2018 to 2020. I have since left to pursue other interests. Please see “Research/Academic” for more information.
Courses Taught:– Elective: SMI, Psychosis, and Recovery: Applied Research Topics
– Practicum Seminar (all semesters)
– CP 701 Psychometrics and Integrative Assessment
– CP 710 Cognitive and Affective Processes
Teaching Philosophy: The general practice and skill of “teaching” has instantiations: academic teaching, supervision, mentorship, facilitation, staff development, behavior modification, skills training, research presentation, etc. Facilitating the processes of skills and knowledge acquisition is central to clinical psychology. Invoking the three tiers of evidence-based practice in psychological services, I provide educational services with the best research evidence, tailor methods and materials to individuals and context, and work towards expertise in general teaching and communication techniques and abilities. As such, I have attempted to mold my academic teaching philosophy to the general principles of learning and leadership that underlie all teaching enterprises while tailoring my approach to the overall and specific strengths, needs, and goals of the students and their institutional context.
Training: I am currently pursuing research, service, and advocacy in Georgia and with other collaborators to investigate problems related to healthcare provider stigma, and how people with lived experience of psychosis and serious mental illness play a crucial role in training the next generation of healthcare providers. Please see Research and Service below for more information about my research and information about national organizational work.
Please contact me or see my C.V. for more information about teaching experience, philosophy, and goals.
Learn More About Research/AcademicResearch
My goal is to understand problematic behavioral and thought patterns that create barriers to resilience and recovery and to test psychosocial interventions’ ability to engage those mechanisms and improve functioning. My C.V. demonstrates my commitment to multimodal assessment of treatment mechanisms, but it belies how this research informs and is informed by my clients, participants, and trainees. I have trained with amazing mentors and institutions, and the most remarkable gift I’ve been given is the ability to apply my intellectual passions for research to understand people overcoming psychological challenges and directly aid their progress.
Below is a selected list of current research projects and interests:
Sleep
Sleep problems are genetically and behaviorally linked to psychopathology. We are testing simple interventions to address and understand sleep problems among young people.
Social Cognition
Social cognition is somewhere between basic brain abilities and social functioning. Social cognitive abilities and characteristics are directly addressed by CBT and are closely related to functioning.
Stigma
Institutional, cultural, and internalized stigma are major barriers to personal recovery and professional/social support. We need to better understand and address stigma related to psychological and other aspect of diversity in our communities and professional services.
Learn More About ResearchPredictors and Mechanisms
People recover from serious psychological problems sometimes through personal or social change and sometimes through professional support. We hope to better understand what specific things change in treatment and in natural resilience so that we can better and more efficiently target and tailor treatment and social programs.
WWWRRRPP Lab
What Works and Why for Recovery, Resilience, and Rehabilitation; Particularly for Psychosis
(under construction)Whether you pronounce it as a sci-fi travel speed or onomatopoeia for a toad sound, this lab and its abbreviation represents many of the things I care about in one place.
WWWRRRPP is the collaborative of myself and talented Mercer Clinical Psychology trainees who work together on a variety of research, clinical, and academic projects.
Unlike the trainees involved in the WWWRRRPP lab, the webpage devoted to the lab is progressing slowly. It will be linked here as soon as possible! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or interest in the lab.
Service & Advocacy
I am lucky to have been elected Leader of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Special Interest Group (PASS SIG) starting 2020; as well as serving on the Research & Practice Committee of the Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Specialty Council; an active member of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 18 SMI/SED Section; among a few other orgazations that are important to me, but with which I am not as active, including Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry, ISPS-US, Hearing Voices Network Facilitators, and Society for Research in Psychopathology.
For more information, please click the links to the right.I am lucky to have been elected Leader of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum Special Interest Group (PASS SIG) starting 2020; as well as serving on the Research & Practice Committee of the Serious Mental Illness (SMI) Specialty Council; an active member of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 18 SMI/SED Section; among a few other orgazations that are important to me, but with which I am not as active, including Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry, ISPS-US, Hearing Voices Network Facilitators, and Society for Research in Psychopathology.
For more information, please click the links to the right.
Contact
Please contact me if you would like to talk about scheduling an appointment or anything else.
NOTE: E-mail (and this form) are not secure.
Please do not include any personal health information.
