Straight answers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No, and not in the first session. I ask about your history at whatever level of detail you're willing to give, and if you'd rather not go into something yet, that is a complete answer. You will never have to earn my help by describing something. Part of why I use EMDR is that it works on what a memory is doing to you now. Your account of it matters less than you would expect.

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.

It's less strange than it sounds. You hold a piece of a memory in mind while doing gentle alternating taps, or following a blinking light on your screen, 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.

Most often I teach you a butterfly hug. You cross your arms over your chest and hold the outside of your upper arms. I show you first, then I tap an alternating beat on myself so you can see it and hear it through the screen, and you keep the beat with me until you have it. After that you tap yourself. Some people would rather use software that puts a blinking light on the screen to follow with your eyes, which works just as well. I'll ask which one you want.

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.

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, and nobody is grading you. The point is that the changes start belonging to you instead of to the therapy hour.

You and I set specific goals at intake, concrete enough that we can both tell whether they're moving. Then we check them as we go, not at the end. When it is working, you tend to notice it outside the room before you notice it in here: sleep, or a shorter fuse, or a conversation that would have gone badly and didn't. If nothing is moving, I will say so. I would rather change the plan than keep spending your money on something that isn't earning its place.

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.

They answer different questions. The free 15-minute consult is about whether to start at all: why you're reaching out, and whether I am the right person for it. The intake is the long version, and that is where I take a full history. How you relate to yourself, what has happened to you, any medical information I need, and what previous therapy was like if you have had it. By the end of the intake we have a plan. By the end of the consult we only have a decision.

Sixty minutes, and mostly me asking questions. The history comes first, then we set two or three specific goals, so we both know what we're aiming at and what it would look like if it worked. We do not do reprocessing that day. Groundwork comes first, then tools, so that you have something to hold onto before we go near the difficult material. How long that takes is different for every person and I will not rush it. We also go through confidentiality and its limits, and you can ask me anything about that.

A private space, a decent connection, and just under an hour when nobody needs you, or a full hour for the intake. Headphones help more than people expect. Sessions run through SimplePractice. On a computer there is nothing to download and it opens in a browser tab. On a phone or tablet you'll need their free Telehealth app, so it is worth installing the day before. If we ever need a different video platform, I will tell you before we use it. If the video drops, I will call you: your paperwork lists where you'll be during sessions and a second way to reach you. One thing to know about location. If you are somewhere semi-public, a parked car included, I will still meet with you, but I will not do reprocessing there.

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.

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. One thing worth knowing about the first chapter: it usually includes the groundwork, which means understanding the history, setting the target, and building enough stability to do the harder work safely. That part is the work, not a delay before it.

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.

Some. I'm in-network with SelectHealth, Regence BlueCross BlueShield, Aetna, Cigna and Carelon Behavioral Health. If you have one of those, you pay your plan's copay or coinsurance per session, and the claims are filed for you through Headway, a billing service for independent therapists. With every other plan I'm out-of-network, so payment is due at each session and you have two options. 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 on request, many PPO, POS and HDHP plans reimburse a good portion once your deductible is met, and your actual cost can end up much closer to a copay. Any insurance claim, in-network or out, carries a diagnosis code to your insurer. If keeping your record clean matters more to you than the money, paying directly is always open to you, even if you're covered by one of those plans; just tell me before we start so we can document it. I won't push you either way. The Fees page lays all three paths out side by side.

Every session is $150 — the 60-minute intake and each 53-minute session after it. Extended 80-minute EMDR sessions are $225, and we plan those in advance together. As a planning estimate, a typical 8-week chapter comes to about $1,200 and a 12-week chapter about $1,800, including intake; planned extended sessions add $75 each. You pay per session as you go. There's no package to buy up front and you can stop whenever you want. If you're using in-network insurance (SelectHealth, Regence BCBS, Aetna, Cigna or Carelon), your cost is your plan's copay or coinsurance per session instead of these figures. If you're paying privately, you get a written Good Faith Estimate before your first session.

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.

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. If you pay privately, no claim is filed with your insurer, so nothing enters that record, and that option is open to you whatever plan you have. If you use insurance, in-network or out, a claim with a diagnosis code goes to your insurer, and only to them. Either way 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.

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.

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.

No, and I would be bad at it if it were. Fifteen minutes by phone or video, free, and nothing to fill in beforehand. You describe what is going on, as much or as little as you want, and you do not have to have it organized. I ask five or six questions, enough to know whether what I do fits what you need. Then I tell you what I think. Sometimes that is yes, and we talk about scheduling. Sometimes it is that you would be better served by someone with different training, and I will say so.

Sometimes the answer is yes. A move, a new baby, a season where you cannot protect an hour a week: those are real reasons to wait, and I would rather you started when you can show up for it. What I will say is that once things settle down tends to arrive later than people expect. Bring it to the consult. I will tell you what I think about the timing, including if I think you should wait.

I get asked this a lot, usually by people who have been managing something for years without calling it a problem. You do not need a crisis to qualify for help. If it is costing you sleep, or your work, or the way you are with the people closest to you, that is enough to bring to a consult. And you are not taking a place from someone who needs it more. Deciding who deserves help is not your job.

Say so, as early as you notice it. My first question will be what specifically is not working, and what you expected that you are not getting, because the answer usually points at something we can change. Then we rebuild the plan around it. You pay per session, so there is nothing to unwind if you decide to stop. The only cost is 24 hours' notice on a session already booked. If what you need turns out to be outside what I do, I will tell you.