About Elizabeth
Virtual therapy for adults and couples in California and Texas
THE WORK
What brought me here
I was drawn to this work through my own experience of healing. What stayed with me was not advice or solutions alone, but being met consistently and attentively as I found my footing again and came back to myself. This shaped my desire to create similar conditions for others.
I believe our capacity for resilience, deep emotional experience, and connection is already inherent in us. We are born with it. What’s often missing are the conditions that allow that capacity to be restored.
My own experience taught me that meaningful change begins with understanding the emotional and relational forces that shape us. Attending to how those forces come to be, and what supports new ways of being, guides my work here.
My training & background
I earned my master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and completed a year-long Transpersonal Psychotherapy clinical training at Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center.
My early clinical practice was in community mental health, where I worked with children and families experiencing homelessness and supported pregnant women and mothers in outpatient maternal health settings, including those in substance use recovery.
I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples and am currently completing Gottman Method Level 1. I also have training in professional burnout, human sexuality across the lifespan, and eating disorder treatment. These approaches sit alongside psychodynamic therapy, attachment theory, and parts work.
Before becoming a therapist, I trained as a birth doula and provided prenatal, birth, and postpartum support to incarcerated women through community-based birth work in Washington State. That experience shaped how I remain present during moments of vulnerability and transition, and how I stay steady when things feel intense or uncertain.
I opened my private practice in San Francisco in 2021, working with adults and couples. I later expanded to Austin and now work virtually with clients throughout California and Texas.
How I think about this practice
I play an active role in sessions. I’m direct and engaged. If something important is held outside awareness, I will name it thoughtfully. I work carefully and deliberately, holding all parts of your experience in mind.
I can meet you in your sadness, rage, grief, shame, joy, and confusion. These emotional states are inherent to being human. They existed before adaptation and coping, before they were judged or pushed aside. Healing becomes possible when emotion can be experienced without urgency to fix it or shut it down.
Early environments often required suppressing parts of ourselves to maintain harmony. If you grew up needing to monitor the moods and limits of others, it may feel difficult to relax in a space where you don’t have to. I take responsibility for my own emotional life and boundaries. You don’t have to stay vigilant to feel settled or understood here.
I focus on nervous system regulation and pacing.
Insight matters, but it deepens when it’s connected to lived, embodied experience. Alongside insight, I track shifts in sensation, activation, and ease as they show up in the room. This kind of somatic noticing helps us understand when something is landing, when it’s too much, or when it needs more time.
I work relationally.
The therapeutic relationship itself is part of the healing. What unfolds between us offers a living context where familiar patterns can come into view. Many of our wounds were shaped in relationship, and it is through relationship that they are repaired.
I use the Enneagram.
I work with the Enneagram as a framework for understanding the core strategy that organizes your personality. Rather than focusing on traits, we look at the deeper motivations and fears that drive your reactions. In growth work, this means examining the places where you are tightly identified, particularly the parts of yourself you defend, exaggerate, or disown.
What makes my approach different
I work from an attachment lens.
Most of what drives us was learned in early relationships — how we seek safety, how we handle closeness, and what happens when connection feels uncertain. This work creates a more secure base from which you can feel, relate, and move more freely.
I trust the intelligence of emotional experience.
I believe much of our inner tension comes from trying not to feel what’s already present. Rather than trying to push emotion away, I help you turn toward it and stay with it long enough for it to move through. When emotions are met fully, they tend to settle rather than escalate, making room for steadiness again.
I treat symptoms as meaningful.
Rather than seeing anxiety, conflict, or shutdown as problems to eliminate, I understand them as signals. We slow down enough to ask what they’re protecting, and what they might be asking for now.
My credentials
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California (License #126146)
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Texas (License #205673)
Education:
MA in Counseling Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA
BA in Psychology, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Specialized Training:
1 year Transpersonal Therapy training at Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples
Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1 (in progress)
CBT for Eating Disorders
Burnout and Wellness Therapy
Human Sexuality Across the Lifespan
Birth Doula Training, International Center for Traditional Childbearing
Professional Memberships:
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapists
Ready to start?
I offer a brief consultation via video to talk about what you're looking for and whether we might be a good match.