If you're here, chances are you want to feel closer to the people you love. Maybe you love your partner so much and still wonder how you keep missing each other, or you're watching distance grow in your family and don't know how to close it. You might look at your child and know there's so much happening underneath what you're seeing, but wish you knew how to reach them. And if you're coming on your own, you may simply be ready to trust more, say what you actually feel, and show up differently with the people who matter to you.
I believe you can have relationships that do more than simply "work." Relationships where you feel known, where there's room to ask for what you need and hear what the people you love need too, where hurt can be repaired and you don't have to hide pieces of yourself to stay connected. Helping you create relationships that feel safe, honest, playful, and alive, while also feeling more connected to yourself along the way, is at the heart of what I do.
In therapy, I'll help us slow down the moments where you keep losing each other and explore together what's really happening there. I'll help you find the harder-to-say things underneath the fighting, silence, anxiety, or distance, and together we'll practice what it feels like to actually say them. Whether you're coming as a couple, a family, or on your own, we'll work toward more ways to understand each other, reach each other, and feel like yourselves together.
When I work with children, the relationship between you and your child is a big part of the process. I use play therapy-informed techniques, creativity, games, and movement because play is one of the main ways kids communicate and make sense of their world. I'll help us gently uncover what your child may be showing us when they don't have the words for it yet, while we work together to help you understand more of their world and find new ways for you and your child to connect.
Therapy with me is active, warm, curious, and very human. I'll ask real questions, tell you what I'm noticing, and help us slow down when something important is happening. We'll make room for the hard stuff, genuinely celebrate when something clicks, and absolutely laugh when it fits. I'm much less interested in asking what's "wrong" with you and much more interested in understanding how you got here, what you're really longing for, and how we can help you create more of it.
I have training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and my work also draws from Narrative Therapy, Bowen Family Systems, and play therapy informed approaches. We'll make room for the families, cultures, identities, communities, and systems that have shaped your life, too. I strive to offer anti-oppressive, queer-affirming, and culturally responsive care, without assuming there's one "right" way to be a person, partner, parent, child, or family.
I see children, teens, adults, couples, and families virtually and in person at MN Couple Therapy Center in Roseville under the supervision of Amanda Pikala, MA, LMFT. I offer free virtual consultations for new clients interested in working with me.