About Dr. L

Education, Training, Experience:

Undergrad:
Wesleyan University | Bachelor of Arts | 2005-2009
Majors: Biology; Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Medical School:
University of Texas - Southwestern Medical School | 2009-2013

Residency:
Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program | 2013-2017

My residency provided a healthy balance of biological psychiatry and psychotherapy training.
Psychotherapy training focused most on psychodynamic therapy and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), though I also gained experience in other psychotherapies including ISTDP, ACT, and CBT. In my 4th year, I served as Chief Resident at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) partial hospital program, where I had the privilege of supervising 2nd year psychiatry residents and trainees of other disciplines (social work interns and psychology interns and practicum students).

Post-Residency, Inpatient:
After completing residency, I moved to Oregon and took a job at Oregon State Hospital to join their DBT team. I worked on both the medium security/medium acuity DBT (certified!) unit and the high security DBT-aligned unit. I also spent a year supervising psychiatrists and PMHNPs in the high security+acuity section of the hospital. Even when I was in a leadership positions, my real passion was always patient care.

Private Practice (now):
After 5+ years in an acute, high risk, long term inpatient setting, I found myself wanting to do more psychotherapy than the busy hospital environment allowed, so I made the switch to outpatient private practice. In my practice, I see patients for individual therapy, psychiatry/psychopharmacology, and focused consultations.

My psychiatrist 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 therapy, and positive psychology, among others). I’m earnest, curious, compassionate, transparent, and direct.

While I practice mostly psychodynamic therapy, I integrate thought technologies from other therapies/schools of thought whenever it makes sense to. Pretty much everything I do is DBT-informed, but I don’t offer formal/standard/actual DBT in my practice (because you need a whole team and program structure for that). One of the DBT-based ideas that I think applies pretty much everywhere is the recognition that the relationship between therapist and patient is a real relationship between two real people. The therapy I do is nonhierarchical, and we both have to affirmatively choose to work together toward a shared objective (whatever treatment goals we’ve identified).

Finally, I’m not a “blank slate” type of therapist — I get engaged in the conversation, and I don’t do stuff like assert that I had a totally neutral facial expression when in fact I definitely had some microexpression that my patient (accurately) picked up on, because that would be invalidating and mean. Importantly, all my reactions are absolutely up for discussion, and may at times be an interesting source of social feedback and information.

(I’ve been told I’m better in person)

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my goofy rescue dog, Mila, who I’ve been trying to rehabilitate after an unknown but seemingly-traumatic early development; we enjoy relaxing at home and watching trashy reality TV and wholesome comedies.