Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.

I believe therapy is a place to become more fully yourself. Not a version of yourself that has learned to perfectly manage every emotion or circumstance, but one that feels grounded, connected, and able to move through life with greater freedom and intention.

We all develop ways of understanding ourselves, other people, and the world around us. Our experiences and relationships shape this lens, and over time, many of our responses become automatic. The ways we protect ourselves, seek connection, manage difficult emotions, or make sense of who we are often developed for good reason. But sometimes, patterns that once served us begin to get in the way of the life and relationships we want now.

In therapy, we get curious about those patterns together. We may explore where they came from, what they have helped you navigate, and how they continue to show up in your life and relationships today. From there, we can begin creating space for something different.

My clinical approach is rooted in attachment, emotion-focused, and psychodynamic therapies. I also integrate trauma-informed and experiential approaches, including EMDR, when appropriate. While our work may involve insight and reflection, I don’t believe therapy has to consist solely of sitting and talking about your week. Depending on what you need, our sessions may include processing experiences in real time, exploring relational patterns, practicing new ways of communicating, or developing concrete skills you can carry into your everyday life.

I believe you are the expert on your own experience. My role is not to tell you who you should be, but I also won’t leave you to figure everything out alone. I bring warmth, curiosity, compassion, candid feedback, and, when helpful, humor into the room. I value creating a therapeutic relationship where you feel deeply supported while also being gently challenged toward the growth that brought you to therapy.

Above all, I consider it a privilege to be invited into people’s stories. Whether you are navigating a painful season, trying to understand yourself more deeply, healing from experiences that continue to affect you, or wanting richer and more authentic relationships, my hope is that therapy becomes a place where you can move toward greater connection, freedom, and wholeness.

Couples Therapy

I have a particular passion for working with couples. Our closest relationships can be a tremendous source of safety, joy, and belonging. They can also touch some of our deepest fears and vulnerabilities.

When couples become stuck, it is easy to focus on the content of recurring arguments: communication, sex and intimacy, finances, parenting, household responsibilities, family boundaries, or the countless other issues that can create tension. While these concerns matter, I am often interested in what is happening underneath them. What happens inside each partner when connection feels threatened? How does each person attempt to protect themselves or reach for the other? How might those understandable responses inadvertently create the very disconnection both partners are trying to avoid?

Using Emotionally Focused Therapy and an attachment-based lens, I help couples slow down these patterns, better understand their relational cycle, and begin experiencing one another differently. Our work goes beyond simply learning to communicate more effectively. We work toward creating greater emotional safety, responsiveness, vulnerability, intimacy, and connection.

I deeply value the opportunity to sit with couples in both the painful and hopeful parts of this process. Some of the most meaningful moments in my work have been witnessing partners move from defensiveness or distance into genuine understanding. I love watching affection, playfulness, trust, and joy begin to return to their relationship.

Teens & Families

Adolescence is a season of enormous change, both for teens and for the relationships around them. I enjoy working with teens as they navigate identity, relationships, self-worth, emotional regulation, life transitions, and the complicated work of becoming more fully themselves.

When appropriate, I also value bringing parents and family members into the therapeutic process. I am particularly drawn to family work centered on strengthening parent-adolescent relationships, understanding patterns of conflict or disconnection, and repairing relationships that have become strained.

Rather than identifying one family member as “the problem,” I approach family work with curiosity about the system as a whole. My goal is to help family members better understand themselves and one another, take responsibility for their part in relational patterns, and create new experiences of safety and connection.

Education:

MA, Clinical Counseling, Point Loma Nazarene University
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
EMDR Trained

Therapeutic Interests:
Couples therapy and relationship distress
Intimacy, vulnerability, and connection
Communication and conflict patterns
Premarital counseling
Attachment and relational patterns
Adolescents and emerging adults
Parent-adolescent relationships and family repair
Self-esteem and identity
Freedom from shame
Trauma and PTSD
Grief and loss
Life transitions
Postpartum adjustment
Spiritual integration, at the client’s request

KAYLA sees clients at both the University Heights and La Mesa locations.