About Alex

I’m a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist. I received my master’s degree from New York University and my supervision training in Texas from a trauma-informed, neuroscience, relational clinical supervisor.

My work as a therapist is shaped by my own life experiences and my professional experiences. I grew up in the hub of southern hospitality, Dallas, TX, where social currency was rooted in your personality and presentation. Relationships were your reputation, which created a lot of pressure and a need for approval in order to belong. I struggled a lot in school academically — I was not able to stay engaged in the classroom or sit still for long periods of time. It wasn’t until I was 17 years old that my mom advocated for me to get tested for ADD, and I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. My whole life changed when I began taking my ADD medication, and to me, this is when my life finally began.

I went off to the University of Missouri–Columbia with aspirations to be on the Today Show as a news anchor, only to discover that passing the prerequisites to get into the #1 Journalism School was not in the cards for me (who knew you’d need Micro & Macro Econ for journalism?!). Alas, I landed on a Communications degree with the goal to help people through my work. I spent my 20’s in Austin, TX discovering myself, falling in love with dancing and live music, and enjoying access to outdoor activities. During this time, I tried out multiple different jobs to see what stuck from fitness instructing to a year of service through Americorps.

Ultimately, I landed on going to New York University to get my master’s in social work and spent two years living, grinding, and growing in NYC. After grad school, I planned to start a company that coordinated care for families taking care of their aging parents, but instead joined a team of 14 people in my hometown, Dallas, that was building this product themselves. I helped build their account management team from the ground up and got a glimpse into the exciting life of start-ups.

After two years there, my partner was offered the career opportunity of a lifetime with the soccer team Rayo Vallecano, and we spontaneously moved to Spain for a year. It was an epic and revealing experience. Upon our return to the States, we pulled out a whiteboard and rated cities we wanted to live in that aligned with our values and lifestyle… we landed on Oakland, CA. I continued my time in tech as an account manager at startups with a pre-IPO, SF-based company for the next couple of years while receiving clinical supervision and maintaining a small private practice on the side.

I also fell in love with reformer Pilates during this time. I bought my own machine and became a certified reformer Pilates instructor through a national accredited program, Mighty Pilates. Reformer Pilates not only changed my body, but the amazing instructors also taught me how to slow down and feel more at ease in my body. This changed my life! Over time, I noticed I was less reactive and more able to accept the ups and downs of life. I had to find a way to offer this to my clients in my therapy practice, so I learned how to cue movements that keep full attention on the body by guiding focus to form in each movement. By doing this, I’m helping your brain learn a new stress response that can be used outside of sessions. It’s essentially training a skill the nervous system can reuse: practicing calm so it becomes more automatic. In cognitive psychology and neuroscience, this is called bottom-up processing—an approach research shows can support brain change through neuroplasticity.

I am now a full-time private practice psychotherapist offering the kind of therapy I wish I had at different stages of my life: a real relationship with a therapist who knows how to challenge me, truly listens (oddly hard to find!), stays up to date on therapy and neuroscience research, and helps me connect the dots so I can actually use what I learn in my life. My goal is to give my clients both insight and practical tools to support them through life transitions, from relationships to career and everything in between.

I’m just a human who turned my curiosity about human behavior and my desire to live a fulfilling life into a career. I’ve picked up some hacks along the way, and now I get to spend my days helping others figure out what they want in their lives and how to feel good.