Complex Mental Health & Personality Treatment for Adults
Individualized virtual therapy available across California.
“You deserve to be understood for the unique essence that is you.”
– Dr. Nicole Strauss
You already know this isn’t going to be simple.
You're not looking for a therapist who will just help you manage symptoms and call it a day. You're not interested in worksheets and breathing exercises if they don't actually touch what's actually going on underneath the surface. You've probably already tried these approaches, and while they may have helped around the edges, they didn't move the wound that actually needs to move.
What you're carrying is multi-layered. Your patterns and symptoms didn't appear overnight. The way you relate to people, the way your emotions work, the way your mind sometimes turns on you: these things have history. And you know, on some level, that real change means going back into that history and actually looking at it.
Maybe there are parts of yourself that you don't fully love. Patterns you've watched yourself repeat even when you knew better. Ways you've affected people that you're not proud of. Things about your personality or your inner world that you've kept at arm's length because looking directly at them has felt like too much.
You're ready to stop looking away. That takes courage. And that’s exactly the kind of work I'm here for.
I want to be direct with you about something.
I have worked with people carrying genuinely heavy things. Complex trauma. Severe personality pathology. Psychotic experiences. Substance use. The cases that other clinicians sometimes don't know what to do with, or quietly refer out.
I don't flinch. That's not a performance, it's just the truth. I've sat with people in the most difficult corners of their inner world and I have not been scared away. I won't be scared away by yours either.
I also bring a relaxed, direct, and sometimes humorous presence to the work. I take what you're carrying seriously. I do not take myself so seriously that there isn't room to breathe. My clients consistently tell me they feel genuinely seen and not judged, and I work hard every session to make sure that's true.
You are a worthy and valued human being. Full stop. Whatever you're carrying, whatever you've done or not done, whatever others have said about you or what you've said about yourself, that doesn't change. I will see you that way from the first conversation.
This is not a one-size-fits-all therapy
My approach to therapy is genuinely bespoke. Every client I work with gets a treatment approach built specifically around who they are, what they're carrying, and what they actually need to change.
My foundation is psychodynamic therapy, meaning we go beneath the surface. We look at the patterns, the history, the relational dynamics, the traumas, and the parts of yourself that formed long ago and are still running the show. We don't just manage what's happening on the outside. We understand what's driving it from the inside.
That psychodynamic foundation is augmented by a range of evidence-based approaches, woven in as your work calls for them:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and building the skills to navigate intensity without it derailing your life
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): for identifying and shifting the thought patterns that keep you stuck
Compassion-focused therapy (CFT): because many of my clients have spent years at war with themselves and others, and learning to relate with yourself more compassionately is often the most transformative work there is.
Mindfulness and spirituality-based approaches: for clients who want to integrate a deeper sense of presence, meaning, or connection into their healing
Somatic approaches: because trauma and personality patterns live inside the body, and sometimes the most important work happens below the level of words
You won't get one modality applied rigidly regardless of what you need. You'll get a clinician who actually thinks about you—specifically, carefully, and continuously—and adjusts as your work evolves.
Who I work with:
My clients are adults throughout California who are done with partial answers. They come to me with presentations that require genuine clinical sophistication. Not because they are beyond help, but because they deserve a level of care that actually matches the complexity of what they're carrying.
I have experience working with:
✦ Personality disorders and complex personality pathology
✦ Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (when stabilized)
✦ Bipolar disorders
✦ Depressive disorders
✦ Anxiety disorders
✦ Complex and developmental trauma
✦ Dual diagnosis
✦ Mood and identity instability
✦ Relational and interpersonal difficulties
My clients are generally functional adults, meaning people who are living their lives, navigating relationships, work, and the world, while also carrying something significant beneath the surface that they're finally ready to address. If a higher level of care is needed at any point, I collaborate closely with other providers to make sure you're supported.
One thing I want to name directly: some of my clients come to me carrying things about themselves they haven't shown to anyone. Patterns they're ashamed of. Parts of their personality they've worked hard to keep hidden, even from themselves. Behaviors that have caused harm to people they love. Ways of thinking that have frightened them. Unthinkable past traumatic events.
I have heard it all. I will not flinch and I will not judge you. You are not a problem to be managed, but a whole and complete person, and you deserve to be seen as one, fully and without condition.
What therapy looks like with me:
We meet individually, weekly or bi-weekly. This is longer-term therapy. Real change at this level of depth doesn't happen in eight sessions, and I won't pretend otherwise.
Our work together will be honest, rigorous, and (perhaps surprisingly) not without moments of lightness. I bring a direct, relaxed presence to the room. I take what you're carrying seriously. I don't take myself so seriously that there isn't room to breathe or occasionally laugh. My clients tell me they feel genuinely seen and not judged, and I work hard every session to make that true.
You will be challenged. You will also be held with love, even when you do not deem yourself worthy. That is the work.
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My practice is private pay. My session fee is $275, and superbills are provided for potential out-of-network reimbursement.
I offer a free 15-minute consultation to explore whether we're a good fit (for us both). I take the fit seriously, because the right therapeutic relationship is the foundation everything else is built on.
Become the person you really are underneath it all.
Book your FREE 15-minute phone consultation.