Adult Individual Therapy
A consistent space to find clarity, connection, and new direction.
Psychoanalytic therapy in Los Angeles for adults seeking deep insight and lasting change. In-person sessions in Beverly Hills and surrounding Westside neighborhoods. Telehealth sessions across California.
My Approach to Individual Therapy
As a psychoanalytic therapist, I believe our symptoms and struggles carry meaning. They are not simply obstacles to be removed, but messages from parts of ourselves that are waiting to be heard. In our sessions, I listen for what is spoken and, just as importantly, for what remains unsaid. My work is to help you explore your associations, dreams, and the feelings that arise within the therapeutic relationship itself.
Individual therapy helps bring what has been unconscious into awareness. By understanding the hidden feelings, wishes, and conflicts that quietly shape your experience, you can move beyond simply managing symptoms and toward a life lived with greater clarity, freedom, and authenticity.
My Specialties
Anxiety & Stress
Anxiety often feels like a buildup of tension that follows you through work, relationships, and the quiet hours when there is nothing left to distract from it. It operates as a signal, something in the present stirring echoes of earlier pain, conflict, or unmet need. Many of the adults I work with have spent years trying to reason their way out of it or outrun it through productivity, only to find it waiting. In our work, we explore what the anxiety is protecting and what it might be trying to communicate, so the patterns that keep it in place can begin to loosen.
Depression & Low Motivation
Depression can feel like a turning inward of energy, a retreat from life when engagement has felt too painful or overwhelming. The things that used to carry meaning, including your work, your relationships, your sense of direction, now feel distant or drained of color. Beneath the heaviness, there is often a story of loss, frustration, or unmet longing that has not yet found expression. In our work together, I help bring these experiences into awareness, so that what has been frozen can begin to move again.
Burnout & Mental Exhaustion
Burnout often emerges when inner and outer demands exceed what the mind and body can sustain, and the usual strategies for pushing through have stopped working. Beneath the exhaustion, there is frequently a conflict between different parts of the self. This might look like a struggle between what you feel and what you believe must be done, or between the wish to rest and the fear of letting others down. In our work, I help you listen to what your fatigue is trying to communicate, so that space can open for renewal and a more sustainable relationship to work and responsibility.
Relationship Issues
Our earliest relationships shape how we love, communicate, and protect ourselves in connection with others. When relationships become painful or disorienting, it is often because old patterns of relating are being repeated in the present: the same distance, the same arguments, or the same feeling of performing closeness rather than experiencing it. In our work together, I help bring these patterns into awareness as they emerge in the therapeutic relationship itself, creating space for greater flexibility and freedom in how you relate to others.
Grief & Loss
Grief touches some of the deepest layers of our emotional lives. When we lose someone or something meaningful, the mind and body often struggle to take in the reality of that absence, and mourning can become stalled or tangled with guilt, anger, or disbelief. At times, earlier losses that were never fully processed resurface alongside the present one. I offer a space where these complex feelings can be expressed and gradually worked through, allowing mourning to unfold in its own time.
Life Transitions
Life transitions often stir deep and conflicting feelings, whether it is a career that no longer fits, a relationship that has ended, or a role you have outgrown. Even positive changes can awaken anxiety, loss, or uncertainty as familiar identities fall away. What feels like indecision often carries something deeper: grief for the life you are leaving behind, or fear of what the new one will ask of you. In our work together, I help you make sense of what the transition has stirred up, so you can move forward with more clarity about what you actually want.
OCD
OCD often takes the form of rituals, intrusive thoughts, or a need for reassurance that provides relief for a moment and then demands more. What appears irrational from the outside is not irrational to you; the rituals and checking are the only things standing between you and an anxiety that feels unbearable without them. In our work, we explore what the rituals are containing and what the intrusive thoughts are circling around, so the need for that level of control can begin to ease from within.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism often presents as high standards, but beneath it there is usually a defense against shame or exposure. If the work is never finished, it can never be judged; if you never fully commit, you cannot fully fail. Many of the adults I work with recognize this pattern intellectually and still find themselves unable to move past it. Therapy for perfectionism is not about lowering your standards. It is about understanding what the impossible standards are protecting, so you can risk being good enough rather than remaining stuck in the pursuit of flawlessnes.
I also work with neurodivergence, personality disorders, psychosis, and self-esteem concerns. If something not listed here is bringing you to therapy, reach out and we can discuss whether this work is the right fit.
Who I work With
I work with adults who are curious about themselves and ready to engage in a process of genuine self-exploration.
My clients come to this work at different points in their lives: some are young adults building an identity and a direction that feel like their own, some are professionals in midlife confronting patterns that have quietly shaped decades of decisions, and some are facing losses or transitions that have made the familiar feel unfamiliar. What they share is not an age or a stage but a willingness to look closely at what has been running beneath the surface.
What often brings people to my practice is a sense that something is not working, and that the usual approaches to fixing it have not been enough. Perhaps you have tried other forms of therapy and found temporary relief but not lasting change. Perhaps you have read, reflected, and understood yourself intellectually, but the patterns persist. This work is for people who are willing to sit with discomfort long enough to understand what it is asking of them.
FAQCommon Questions about Individual Therapy
What is psychoanalytic therapy?
Psychoanalytic therapy is a depth-oriented approach that explores the patterns, relationships, and unconscious forces shaping your emotional life, rather than focusing solely on managing symptoms. It asks why: why you withdraw, why you feel stuck, why the worry won't stop. Rather than teaching techniques to cope with these experiences, we work to understand where they come from and what they mean. When you begin to understand what drives these patterns, the symptoms themselves shift. This happens not because you have learned to manage them, but because something fundamental in how you relate to yourself has changed.
What is the difference between psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapy?
Psychodynamic therapy is the broad category: a way of working informed by the influence of early experience and the ways we unconsciously navigate our lives. It includes shorter-term, more structured approaches that may focus on a specific problem. Psychoanalytic therapy is a more intensive form of that work. It is typically longer-term, meets more frequently, and uses the relationship between therapist and client as the primary engine for change. Research consistently finds that people in psychodynamic therapy continue to improve after treatment ends, a pattern researchers call the "sleeper effect." My practice falls on the psychoanalytic end of this spectrum, working directly with the therapeutic relationship and the material that emerges in the space between us.
What should I talk about in a session?
Whatever you like. There is no right or wrong thing to discuss. Your free associations, the thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams that arise spontaneously, will provide us with the essential material we need to work with. My role is to listen with precision and help you make connections.
How often will we meet?
Consistency is key to this work. We will meet at least once a week. Some clients choose to meet more frequently (2+ times a week) to deepen the process and allow for patterns to emerge more clearly, much as they do in other close relationships.
Where is your office?
My office is at 9615 Brighton Way in Beverly Hills, and I also offer online therapy throughout California. I work with adults across the Westside of Los Angeles, including Brentwood, Santa Monica, Westwood, Century City, and West Hollywood. If you are looking for a psychoanalytic therapist in Beverly Hills or the greater Los Angeles area, both in-person and online sessions are available. Many clients find that online sessions allow them to settle into the work more comfortably, speaking from a space that already feels like their own.
What should I look for in a therapist?
The relationship between you and your therapist matters more than any specific technique. Research shows that the therapeutic alliance is one of the most consistent predictors of positive outcomes, regardless of the approach used. You need to feel genuinely understood, not just assessed. I pay close attention to what happens between us in the room, because that connection is where real change takes shape. I would suggest scheduling consultations with a few providers and noticing who you feel most able to be honest with.
Get StartedReady to Begin?
I offer a free 15-minute consultation to see if we're a good fit. No pressure, just a chance to connect and answer your questions.