About Dr. L

(she/her)

My therapist-vibe:

My clinical style is accepting, nonjudgmental, and trauma informed, and my therapeutic orientation draws from many different schools of thought (DBT, attachment theory, psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory, and positive psychology, among others). I’m earnest, curious, compassionate, transparent, and direct.

In therapy, I use my clinical expertise/formal education and my subjectivity/intuition/what-it-feels-like-in-the-room-(or-zoom), and mix it all together to inform the path ahead. I practice mostly psychodynamic therapy, and I integrate other therapies/schools of thought whenever it makes sense to. Individual therapy sessions tend to be loosely structured, though I may at times bring in more formal/structured tools or thought technologies when it makes sense to (e.g. worksheets, written exercises, structured journaling, mood and thought tracking, breathing exercises, crisis management/support plans, etc). I don’t offer standard DBT in my practice, because you need a whole team and program structure for that, but pretty much everything I do is DBT-informed. My approach is collaborative and non-paternalistic — we both have to affirmatively choose (“opt in”) to work together toward the collaboratively determined therapeutic goals. As your therapist, I'm not your boss, I'm not your parent, I'm not your friend; I'm your hired co-investigator (credit: Dr. Tom Gutheil).

I see therapy as a safe place, walled off from the rest of your life, that provides low-stakes opportunities for talking about challenging or painful experiences, trying out new perspectives/ways of thinking, and experiencing emotions without restraint. This can be super helpful for folks who have trouble expressing themselves, folks with traumatic or painful histories that are too difficult to think about outside of a controlled setting, folks who want to increase their ability to feel certain emotions they've been avoiding, and more.

I also wholeheartedly honor and celebrate that the therapeutic relationship is a real relationship between two real people, and that a good therapeutic relationship can mean the difference between a patient staying miserable and that patient achieving immense personal growth and symptom resolution.

I’m not a “blank slate” type of therapist, and I don’t routinely stifle my reactions. Importantly, all of my reactions are up for discussion! Talking through what is expressed nonverbally (through facial expressions and microexpressions, laughs and non-laughs, and so on) can often be a rich source of (or basis for) social feedback, shared understanding, and empathic connection.

As a psychiatrist for folks already working with another therapist, my clinical approach is very similar to that described above. While I may not be someone’s primary therapist, my understanding of their diagnosis and my approach to treatment are very much informed by the person’s current symptoms, developmental history, treatment history, and what they are working on with their therapist. My approach to psychopharmacology/medication management is highly individualized — some people need a more proactive approach, others may be more prone to side-effects or may have medical co-morbidities that make them better suited for a more gradual (maybe even hesitant) psychopharmacologic/medication plan. Sometimes patients come to see me taking a long list of medications that haven’t significantly improved their symptoms, and may even be causing new problems or side-effects, and it may be necessary to stop (or lower the dosages of) some medications. I do not see medications as a requirement or goal for my patients — medications are one of the many interventions available (alongside mindfulness, individual therapy, couple’s therapy, lifestyle changes, etc), and each patient has their own unique needs.