Hi, I'm Teal.
I help adults and couples navigate OCD, anxiety, trauma, relationship patterns, and major life transitions.
Therapy with me is collaborative, warm, and active. I want you to have a space where you can feel deeply understood while also doing meaningful work toward change.
My approach is rooted in attachment theory and informed by evidence-based treatments including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), EMDR, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
I provide in-person therapy in Santa Monica and virtual therapy throughout California.
What it's like to work with me
I believe therapy works best when you don't have to choose between feeling understood and being challenged to grow.
My style is warm, curious, collaborative, and engaged. We'll make space to understand where your patterns come from, while also paying attention to how they're showing up in your life today—and what might help you move differently.
Attachment theory is an important foundation of my work. Our earliest relationships can shape how we experience closeness, conflict, vulnerability, safety, and ourselves. For individual and couples work, exploring these patterns can help us understand not only what you do, but why certain experiences feel so emotionally charged.
At the same time, insight isn't always enough. When appropriate, I integrate structured, evidence-based approaches such as ERP, ACT, CBT, and EMDR to help translate understanding into meaningful change.
Different concerns call for different kinds of therapy.
Therapy isn't one-size-fits-all. The approach we use depends on what you're experiencing and what is most likely to help.
For OCD and intrusive thoughts, treatment may center around ERP and ACT, helping you change your relationship with uncertainty rather than endlessly analyzing the content of your thoughts.
For trauma and painful past experiences, EMDR and attachment-informed work can help process experiences that continue to shape the present.
For anxiety, relationships, and life transitions, we may explore attachment patterns, beliefs, emotional responses, and behaviors while building greater flexibility and self-understanding.
In couples therapy, attachment provides an important lens for understanding the cycles partners can become caught in and the needs, fears, and protective strategies underneath them.
My Background & Training
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #142281) with a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University.
My clinical background includes work in at trauma outpatient settings, at Cedar Sinai Hospital, giving me experience supporting people with a wide range of emotional and relational concerns.
My continued training and clinical work have developed particular areas of focus in OCD and anxiety, trauma and EMDR, attachment and relationships, and couples therapy.
I value continuing education and staying connected to evolving research and evidence-based treatment so that the therapy I provide is both deeply human and clinically informed.