Get to Know Me
My training in psychology began during my undergraduate career at the College of the Holy Cross. I received a liberal arts education that provided me with foundational education in psychology and women's and gender studies. It was there that I developed a passion for understanding the ways in which our world shapes our experiences with and in our bodies.
After taking several years to pursue interests in clinical research, I took a leap of faith and moved to Hawai'i to obtain my PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. While there, I obtained extensive training and supervision from experts in the of field eating disorder treatment and research. I developed skills in psychological and neuropsychological assessment, cognitive behavior therapy, motivational interviewing, biofeedback, and helping patients implement health behavior change. I worked in a variety of settings, including outpatient therapy clinics, a college counseling center, a community mental health center, a military hospital, and private practice neuropsychological assessment. I additionally developed research skills focused toward better understanding and treating eating disorders. I completed my degree with a year of clinical internship at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. While there, I trained in their partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatments for children, adolescents, and adults with eating disorders, conducted pre-surgical assessments for patients seeking bariatric surgery, facilitated dialectical behavior therapy skills groups, and worked with the pediatric psychiatry consultation service.
I then ventured across the country again for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego's Eating Disorder Center for Treatment and Research (UCSD EDC), where I facilitated groups focused on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills, radically open dialectical behavior skills (RO-DBT), self-compassion, relapse prevention, social justice, and cognitive behavior therapy, while also delivering individual DBT, individual RO-DBT, and family therapy.
I am employed full-time as a clinical psychologist on UCSD's main campus. My role at UCSD is to provide treatment to students struggling with eating disorders, while also helping to develop a multidisciplinary outpatient eating disorders treatment team.
In my personal time, you'll often find me playing games or cooking with loved ones, hiking with my beloved dog, and curling up with a good book and a cup of tea.