I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over a decade of experience in the mental health field, with specialized experience in eating disorders, body image, and behavior change.
Throughout my career, I've worked with many of the patterns that show up in this work: emotional coping, ingrained habits, ambivalence about change, difficulty maintaining change, and the gap between knowing what you want to do and being able to consistently do it.
Weight & Mind grew out of a gap I saw in the weight-loss process. Medication and surgery can create significant physical change, but the thoughts, habits, emotions, relationships, and sense of self someone brings into that process don't automatically change with their body.
I created Weight & Mind to focus specifically on that part.
One thing I've learned throughout my clinical work is that behaviors that look very different on the surface can serve similar purposes underneath. They may help someone avoid an uncomfortable emotion, regulate stress, find relief, or cope with something that feels difficult in the moment, even when the behavior creates problems over time.
Understanding what a behavior is doing for you, not simply identifying what you want to stop doing, is an important part of creating meaningful change.
Today, my focus is the psychological and behavioral side of significant weight change, whether you're using a GLP-1 medication, have had bariatric surgery, or are working on your relationship with food and your body without medication or surgery.
My work isn't about pursuing weight loss itself. It's about helping you understand and address the thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and patterns that can remain even as your body changes. That may include emotional eating, body image, fear of regain, identity shifts, old habits resurfacing, or learning how to relate differently to food and your body.
It's focused, evidence-based clinical work for the part of the process medication and surgery were never designed to address.
Continuing education is an important part of my clinical practice. I pursue specialized training in areas directly relevant to the clients I work with so that my approach continues to reflect current, evidence-based clinical care.
Alongside my broader clinical training, I have specialized training in areas particularly relevant to the work we do together:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Nervous System Regulation
Certified Mental Health & Nutrition Clinical Specialist (CMNCS)
I have specialized training in applying ACT to eating and body image concerns, including psychological flexibility, cognitive defusion, present-moment awareness, and values-based action.
These approaches can help you develop a different relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions rather than organizing your behavior around avoiding, controlling, or fighting them. In our work, this may apply to food-related distress, body image, rigid thinking, shame, or decisions about how you want to care for yourself.
My training includes polyvagal-informed approaches, somatic awareness, mindfulness, and strategies for emotion regulation.
Stress and emotional activation can influence urges, eating behavior, and our ability to tolerate discomfort. This training helps me incorporate practical strategies for recognizing your body's stress responses, regulating difficult emotional states, and creating more space between an urge and your response to it.
My training as a Certified Mental Health & Nutrition Clinical Specialist includes education on the relationship between nutrition, appetite, the gut-brain connection, and mental health.
I use this knowledge to better understand the biological context surrounding a client's psychological experience, particularly when appetite and eating patterns have changed during GLP-1 treatment.
This training informs my psychotherapy and psychoeducation. It does not replace the role of a physician, registered dietitian, or other nutrition professional, and I do not provide medical or nutritional treatment through Weight & Mind.
My Approach
I don't believe in one-size-fits-all treatment. My approach draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing, mindfulness-based techniques, nervous system regulation, and gut-brain connection psychoeducation.
I use these approaches based on your history, the patterns we identify together, and what you're actually struggling with.
Every Behavioral Intensive is built around you. The goal is to understand what's driving the pattern, identify what's keeping it in place, and focus our work where it can be most useful.
Multi-State Practice
Licensure
I provide online psychotherapy to adults who are physically located in a state or jurisdiction where I am licensed to practice at the time of the session.
I am currently licensed to provide psychotherapy in:
Florida
New York
New Jersey
Connecticut
Delaware
Washington, DC
All Weight & Mind services are provided via telehealth.
If you're interested in the Behavioral Intensive, reach out and tell me a little about what you're navigating. I'll follow up personally to determine whether the Intensive is appropriate for your needs and let you know the next step.