Straight answers

My practice is built for adults, and that's where most of the work sits. I also see older teens, roughly sixteen and up, case by case, most often when a parent or another provider refers someone dealing with trauma, anxiety, or the aftermath of something that happened at home. For that to work, a parent or legal guardian consents to treatment, and we agree at the outset on what stays between the two of us and what doesn't. For younger children I'm not the right fit, so say so when you reach out and I'll gladly point you toward Utah clinicians who specialize in that age group. Same goes for couples and family therapy, which I don't provide.

For most people, yes, and I include EMDR in that. Research on telehealth therapy consistently finds outcomes comparable to in-person work, and there's a practical upside, which is that you're doing hard emotional work in a place where you already feel safe, with no commute and no waiting room. Some situations genuinely call for in-person care, and I'll tell you if I think yours is one of them.

I work with people at every point on that spectrum. Devout, questioning, leaving, long gone, and never religious. I will not push you toward faith or away from it; either would be substituting my agenda for yours. I will take seriously what belief has meant to you, including the grief and family pressure that often come with changing it. If faith matters to how you understand your life, it belongs in the work. If it's what you're working through, that belongs too. And if it's irrelevant to you, it won't come up.

Yes, and you're in good company. A lot of people arrive with no single event to point at, just a pattern: the same relationship repeating with a different person, going distant the moment someone gets close, needing constant reassurance and resenting that they need it, or not being able to name what they want. Those are attachment patterns rather than trauma memories, and they respond well to focused work. You do not need a diagnosis or a dramatic story to qualify for help.

It really can be. Childhood emotional neglect, growing up with nobody hostile but nobody interested either, leaves real marks: not knowing what you feel, assuming your needs don't count, a low-grade sense that something is missing, and often guilt for struggling when you 'had a good childhood.' The absence of something necessary is an injury too, even though there's no story to tell about it. It's also very treatable.

Yes, with your side of it. Betrayal trauma produces genuinely trauma-like symptoms: intrusive images, compulsive checking, sleeplessness, and swinging between fury and numbness. That's your attachment system reacting to a real injury. I work individually with either partner, though not both members of the same couple. That can be the person carrying the injury, where the first goal is getting your own footing back before you decide anything about the relationship, or the person who broke the trust and is serious about understanding why and changing it. On scope: I'm not a certified sex-addiction therapist, so if compulsive sexual behavior is the central issue I'll refer you to a specialist, and I don't do couples work. Ask and I'll refer you to Utah practices built for it.

Yes, and especially when the two are tangled together, which they often are. A loss can crack open older material that had been managed for decades, and sometimes a death is itself traumatic in how it happened. Grief on its own isn't a disorder and doesn't need fixing; it needs company and time. If your grief is layered over old trauma, or the memory of the loss itself is intrusive, that's the kind of work I do.

Most people don't, and especially not early on. That part is my job, not yours. I ask questions and you answer them, and when you go blank we sit with that for a moment and come at it from a different angle. You can't do this wrong, and you don't need to arrive organized or with a tidy explanation of your own history. Crying is common, and so is not crying; neither one means it's working or not working.

Book or request a free 15-minute consult. You'll talk through what's going on, ask whatever you want, and get an honest read on fit. If it makes sense, you'll schedule an intake and build a plan from there. If it doesn't, you'll get a referral instead.

No. I'm out-of-network with every insurer, so payment is due at each session. You have two options and they trade off against each other. You can pay directly, in which case nothing goes to your insurance company and no diagnosis enters your record. Or you can use your out-of-network benefits. I provide a superbill, many PPO plans reimburse a good portion once your deductible is met, and your actual cost can end up much closer to a copay. The catch is that a claim requires a diagnosis code, and that code goes to your insurer. If keeping your record clean matters more to you than the money, pay directly. I won't push you either way. The Fees page lays both paths out side by side, including the four questions to ask your insurance company before you decide.

The intake session is $175 (60 minutes) and ongoing sessions are $165 (50 minutes). Extended 80-minute EMDR sessions are $250, and we plan those in advance together. As a planning estimate, a typical 8-week chapter comes to about $1,330 and a 12-week chapter about $1,990, including intake; planned extended sessions add $85 each. You pay per session as you go. There's no package to buy up front and you can stop whenever you want. A written Good Faith Estimate is provided at intake.

Usually, yes, and it reduces the cost meaningfully because you're paying with pre-tax dollars. Therapy that treats a diagnosed mental-health condition is generally an eligible medical expense. Two caveats: plan rules vary, and counseling that isn't treatment for a diagnosed condition may not qualify. Your plan administrator is the one who can tell you for certain, and I can't give tax advice. I can give you an itemized receipt whenever you need one.

Often, yes. In Utah many LDS bishops and other faith leaders have funds available to help members with counseling costs, and with your written authorization I can arrange billing directly to a third party. If that's a possibility for you, mention it during your consult and I'll walk you through how it works. Some employers also offer wellness stipends that reimburse you for counseling you've paid for, so check with HR. One caveat: traditional EAP sessions usually have to stay within the EAP's own provider network, so those generally can't be used here.

It's less strange than it sounds. You hold a piece of a memory in mind while following a moving dot with your eyes or doing gentle alternating taps, then briefly say what came up. Repeat in short sets. You're awake, aware and in control the whole time. It isn't hypnosis, and you can stop any set. Most people say the memory gradually feels further away, less vivid, less urgent. And you don't have to describe every detail of what happened for it to work.

The work is organized in focused chapters of roughly 8–12 weeks with a specific target, then reviewed together. Many people accomplish what they came for in that window; many others do more than one chapter, either for a new target or because a longer history needs more room. The structure keeps the work pointed. It isn't a deadline on your healing, and nobody gets shown the door at week 12.

No. A chapter is not the whole book. The 8–12 week frame is about working on one thing at a time with a clear aim, not about finishing everything. If your history is layered, you'll likely work in several chapters with review points between them, which tends to feel more manageable than an indefinite weekly appointment with no markers of progress.

You'll set a stop signal before any reprocessing starts, and using it is expected. If you get flooded or go numb, the session shifts to grounding until you're settled. That's built into the method. Every session also ends deliberately, with time to get back to steady before you log off. Before starting you'll confirm that you're somewhere private and have a local emergency contact, just in case.

It means we look at the strategies you developed early on to stay safe in your closest relationships, and notice that they're still running now, long after they stopped helping. If needing things got you dismissed, you may have become someone who needs nothing and feels empty. If closeness came with unpredictability, you may chase reassurance and hate that you do. I'm trained in Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), which is built for exactly this: seeing the pattern, understanding what it protected you from, and building a different experience of closeness. It pairs well with EMDR. EMDR drains the charge from specific memories, and attachment work changes what you expect from people now.

That's one of the most common reasons people come to me, and I think it's usually because the previous work stayed at the level of insight. Understanding your patterns and having your nervous system stop reacting are different jobs. EMDR and trauma-focused methods target the reaction itself, which is why people who felt stuck in talk therapy sometimes get traction here.

Some, yes. Most of the change happens in the relationship and in the sessions themselves, but what you do outside the room is a lot of what makes it stick: practicing a skill, noticing patterns, following through on decisions you make in session. It won't be homework for its own sake, but if you're hoping to hand the problem over and have it solved for you, this probably isn't the right practice.

What you share is private and legally protected. The exceptions are narrow and specific, and here they are: if there's a serious risk you'll harm yourself or someone else, if there's suspected abuse or neglect of a child or a vulnerable adult, or if a court orders release of records. Ordinary hard thoughts, including the intrusive thoughts many parents have and feel ashamed of, are not reportable. I'll walk through all of this at your first session and you can ask anything about it.

I'd much rather you asked me this than wondered about it. Because this practice is private pay, no claim is filed with your insurer, so nothing enters that record. Your clinical record stays with me and is released only with your written authorization or under the narrow legal exceptions described above. I don't report to employers, and choosing therapy voluntarily is not a fitness-for-duty finding. If you're facing a formal fitness-for-duty evaluation or a board matter, that's a different process with different rules, and I'll tell you what I can and can't do within it. Occupational and moral injury in healthcare and public safety is work I take seriously.

I won't assume I do. I work with clients across a range of backgrounds and I treat your context as information I need from you rather than something I already know: family expectations, cultural and community obligations, immigration or refugee history, the pressures particular to where you live. If I don't understand something, I'll ask instead of guessing, and if I think someone else would serve you better I'll say so and help you find them.

No. I'm licensed in Utah, so you must be physically located in Utah at the time of your session. If you're out of state, reach out anyway. I may be able to point you toward a trauma therapist licensed where you live.

Please give at least 24 hours' notice to move or cancel a session. Sessions missed or canceled with less notice are charged the full rate, which is standard practice across Utah clinics. Real emergencies are handled like emergencies. A card kept securely on file through the client portal is charged at each session, so payment is automatic.