My work with teens and young adults focuses acceptance, self-advocacy, and affirming identities and neurodivergence.  I collaborate with clients to understand how their experiences, relationships, thoughts, behaviors and emotions may cause, maintain, or exacerbate mental and psychological challenges. My stregnths based, accepting, Collaborative and Individualized approach honors, values and prioritizes the unique strengths, experiences, and perspectives of neurodivergent individuals. I work with clients on issues related to their development, culture, identity, age, life transitions, family conflicts due to role or value shifts, divorce or parents, grief and loss, unmet psychological needs in relationships, the effects of immigrating or relocating, bullying and school/career. I received education and training to support clients in identifying how they might have learned certain cognitive, social, and emotional patterns due to their environment or their developmental needs. I work with them to identify, understand, accept or challenge and improve negative or irrational thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. I use developmentally appropriate assessment tools and culturally sensitive interventions to support individuals living with major depressive disorder, the spectrum of anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and more.

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The therapeutic process involves collaboration for psychosocial assessment, treatment planning, diagnostic assessment, clinical diagnosis, and evidence-based intervention. I often collaborate with clients in considering their personal background and theoretical frameworks such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Through therapy with me, my clients might learn to practice mindfulness and develop the ability to manage distress; accept their limitations; advocate for their needs; regulate their mood to manage overwhelm, impulsivity, aggression, and frustration. My clients might also learn way to improve functioning by reducing procrastination, repetition, etc.; enhance communication effectiveness in order to share desires, ideas, thoughts, opinions, knowledge; oneself in order to be in a conscious state where decisions are made with intentionality.

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I use cultural humility if working with individuals who have immigrant backgrounds and might have different nationalities, sociopolitical histories, and cultural traditions.

 

I engage clients in dialogue about cultural (family orientation, profession, gender, race, age, religion, etc.) factors that may affect the client’s symptoms, behaviors, mood, thought patterns, relationships, and clinical course. My counseling process is an empathetic conversation that normalizes the day-to-day issues and mental health disorders that people live with and makes the individual feel seen and understood while providing specific social and emotional skills that help the individual manage, alleviate or eliminate their current problem and similar problems in the future.  I work collaboratively with my clients in assessing their needs, creating a treatment plan, and implementing interventions that consider their personality, culture and identity, experiences, and insight as to what is actually relevant to them.

 

I have worked with teams of other psychologists, behavioral analysts, behavioral technicians, educators, school administrators, and parents to develop Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students in the autism spectrum disorder. I have worked in both home and school-based practices supporting autistic individuals to learn cognitive, non-cognitive, social, and emotional skills to help them in schools and beyond. I use different approaches for ASD clients depending on the level of autism which indicates levels of support the client requires. Some of the approaches I use for individuals in the autism spectrum are the behavioral management and redirection approach, cognitive behavior approach, social-emotional learning, Internal and external stimuli management approach, and Exposure therapy approach. Throughout a continuous process, of my efforts as a therapist, parents, and other members of the team my clients tend to develop everyday life skills, cognitive skills, social skills, and higher levels of emotional intelligence which helps them better understand their emotions, which decreases the likelihood of having maladaptive behaviors. I worked for three years as a clinical technician for Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. I currently work as a school counselor for a public charter school.

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I graduated with a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from George Mason University in December 2023 and I am a Qualified Mental Health Professional-Trainee ( Adult/Child ) by the Virginia Board of Counseling. I practice under the supervision of a licensed professional counselor.