Meet Our New Clinician, Emily!

When you first meet our newest clinician, you may notice a quiet warmth and an easy curiosity. You may also, if you’re lucky, catch her humming along to whatever song is playing in the background. Before she imagined herself in a therapy office, she once pictured a very different stage.

“As a kid, I wanted to be a pop singer,” she laughs. “I’ve always loved singing. I’m usually humming under my breath or singing along to the radio.”

That early love of expression and connection never really left. It simply found a new outlet.

Her path to becoming a therapist, she shares, was deeply personal. In high school, she struggled to find a therapist she felt truly connected to. Later, in college, she faced her own battles with depression and disordered eating. It wasn’t until she found a therapist with whom she felt genuinely safe that healing became possible.

“That experience changed everything for me,” she says. “I knew from then on that I wanted to be that kind of therapist for someone else. Someone who helps people feel safe enough to do the hard work of healing.”

Being a Therapist

Today, what she loves most about her work is the opportunity to step into another person’s perspective with curiosity and compassion. She often helps clients shift their relationship with their inner critic.

“I do a lot of inner-critic work,” she explains. “We practice moving from criticism to curiosity. I really like understanding the ‘why’ behind people — why they are the way they are, why they react the way they do, and why they want to heal.”

Her clinical focus on eating disorders and body image is also rooted in lived experience. She speaks candidly about how freeing it has been in her own life to loosen the grip of food rules and body standards imposed by culture.

“Putting less value on food and body image was so freeing for me,” she says. “I want others to feel less trapped by beauty standards and ‘thin’ culture. Life is too short to worry about eating the cookie. Eat the cookie!”

That philosophy isn’t just a slogan. It shows up in the work she does with clients. She recalls a teenage client who struggled deeply with restriction, body image distress, and compulsive exercise. Together, they worked toward body neutrality, consistent nourishment, and understanding how family dynamics and childhood experiences played a role in her eating disorder.

“Now she can go out with friends to eat, she doesn’t have constant food thoughts, and she isn’t shivering all the time,” she shares. “There’s still more work to do, but the progress she’s made is incredible.”

When asked what she wishes were different about mental health care, her answer is immediate: accessibility.

“I wish therapy were more accessible, especially for minority populations and those with lower incomes. And I wish we talked about mental health more openly in general.”

Outside of the therapy room, her own self-care is refreshingly simple and grounding: walking her dogs with her husband, getting a massage, curling up with tea and a good book, singing loudly, and engaging in mindful movement that she truly enjoys.

At the heart of her work is a belief that healing begins with safety, curiosity, and compassion… and sometimes, permission to simply enjoy the cookie.

If you’re ready to take the next step on your path to recovery and resilience, get in touch today for a complimentary consultation call.