When I work with clients who live with bipolar disorder, I combine evidence-based approaches like DBT with an understanding that comes from both professional training and lived experience. DBT offers powerful tools for managing the emotional intensity, impulsivity, and relationship struggles that often come with bipolar—skills like mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation can make mood episodes easier to navigate and reduce long-term disruption. At the same time, I know that bipolar disorder is not the whole of someone’s identity. In therapy, we explore patterns, triggers, and strengths while building routines and supports that fit the client’s real life. I work to normalize the ups and downs, reduce shame, and help clients create strategies for stability that are sustainable, compassionate, and flexible. My goal is to walk alongside clients, not only as a therapist, but as someone who deeply understands how challenging and isolating bipolar disorder can feel, and to support them in building a life worth living on their own terms.

When I work with clients who struggle with self-harm, I create a compassionate, nonjudgmental space where we can safely explore the underlying reasons for the behavior—often emotion regulation difficulties, trauma, dissociation, or intense shame. My approach is collaborative and pragmatic: I begin with a careful risk assessment and then co-create a personalized safety plan that includes early warning signs, coping strategies, people and supports to contact, and steps for reducing immediate risk. Therapeutically, I draw heavily on DBT skills (distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness) alongside trauma-informed and attachment-focused work. We practice alternative coping skills in session, build relapse-prevention plans, and slowly process the painful emotions and experiences that drive self-harm when the client is ready. I involve family or caregivers when appropriate and with consent, and I coordinate with psychiatrists or medical providers if medication or medical follow-up is needed. Throughout treatment I prioritize dignity and agency—helping clients replace shame with self-compassion, strengthen safety and coping, and build a life in which the urge to self-harm reduces over time. I also routinely monitor risk and revise the safety plan as things change.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based therapy that combines acceptance and change. It was originally created to help people with intense emotions, self-harm, and borderline personality disorder, but it’s now widely used for many challenges—including bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and trauma. DBT teaches four core skill sets: mindfulness (staying grounded in the present), distress tolerance (getting through crises without making things worse), emotion regulation (understanding and managing intense feelings), and interpersonal effectiveness (building healthier, more balanced relationships). In therapy, I help clients learn and practice these skills while also validating their lived experiences and the pain they carry. DBT can help reduce impulsivity, stabilize mood, improve relationships, and build a stronger sense of self. At its heart, DBT empowers people to hold both truths—that they are doing the best they can right now, and that they can still make meaningful changes to create a life worth living.