Who I Work With

If you’re looking for a quick overview of specific areas I work with, you can find this listed under “who I work with” in the navigation menu above. This page is in-depth look at the kinds of experiences I work with as a therapist in Eugene & Springfield, Oregon.

An Open-Ended Beginning

Across the many experiences people bring into therapy, certain questions surface again and again:

How do I want to live?
Who am I becoming?
What is present?
What matters?

My work engages these existential questions. Themes such as meaning, freedom, responsibility, and relationship shape how we understand ourselves and how we move through our lives. From this Existential Lens, I anchor our conversations in presence, honesty, and genuine connection. Through this kind of encounter, clarity, coherence, and a more grounded sense of being can begin to emerge.

Inner Tension

One of the most common experiences people bring into therapy is a persistent sense of anxiety or inner tension. This often shows up as feeling on edge or internally braced, even when nothing is immediately wrong. The mind drifts toward what might happen, what remains unresolved, or what feels uncertain or unfinished.

Anxiety frequently overlaps with patterns of overthinking or rumination, where the mind loops in on itself in an attempt to find certainty or relief. While thinking can feel productive in the moment, over time it often deepens fatigue and creates distance from one’s direct experience of the present.

For others, tension takes the form of anger or irritability. This does not always appear as overt conflict. More often it shows up as impatience, frustration, or a sense of being blocked or constricted in life. Reactions may feel out of proportion or confusing, often pointing toward unmet needs, unclear boundaries, or aspects of experience that have not yet been fully acknowledged or integrated.

Energy, Mood, and Loss

At other times, the problems we face are less about tension and more about the weight of reality itself. You may notice a gradual flattening of emotional life, often during periods of transition or significant change. Motivation decreases. What once felt meaningful or engaging no longer does. Life can begin to feel distant, heavy, or difficult to inhabit. This experience is often described as depression, though many people experience it less as sadness and more as numbness, heaviness, or a loss of vitality.

Others come to therapy feeling burned out or emotionally exhausted, particularly after long periods of responsibility, caretaking, or performance. Rest may no longer feel restorative, and even small decisions can feel overwhelming. Beneath the fatigue, there is often a deeper question about direction, values, and whether one’s current way of living is sustainable.

The experience of grief and loss may also be central. Grief is not limited to death. It often arises after the end of a relationship, a shift in identity, an unrealized future, or the recognition that certain chapters of life have closed. Encountering grief can be deeply unsettling, but it can also be profoundly transformative, reshaping how we understand ourselves and the world.

Change and Patterns of Coping

Many people seek therapy during periods of change. Sometimes this follows an external transition, such as a career shift or the loss of a relationship or loved one. At other times, it emerges from an internal readiness to become a different version of oneself. Therapy becomes a place to explore these moments with care, and to examine how choice and responsibility show up in everyday life.

The experience of being human brings real challenges, and for many people, patterns such as substance use or repetitive behaviors offer short-term relief or distraction from overwhelm, uncertainty, or isolation. These patterns are often creative attempts to cope, regulate, or protect oneself. In therapy, the work is not to judge or rush to eliminate them, but to understand what they have been responding to and what they reveal about how one has learned to live.

Men’s Mental Health and the Question of Identity

A significant portion of my work supports men’s mental health. Many men come to therapy not because life is visibly falling apart, but because something within feels subtly yet persistently misaligned. Over time, this can lead to isolation, anger, anxiety, depression, or deeper existential concerns.

Therapy becomes a space to explore identity, responsibility, and choice as lived realities. If this resonates, you may also want to explore the men’s mental health page or listen to the podcast episode When Meaning Has No Map.

Relationships and Couples Work

In addition to working with individuals, I also work with couples. Couples often seek therapy when patterns of conflict or emotional distance have become difficult to navigate on their own. At other times, couples come not because something is wrong, but because they want to better understand one another and strengthen their relationship.

My work with couples focuses on creating space for honest dialogue, emotional attunement, and a deeper understanding of how each partner’s inner world shapes the relationship. Therapy becomes a place to slow down, listen more carefully, and explore how freedom, responsibility, and care are lived between two people.

Not Knowing

What I’ve outlined above is not an exhaustive list of the experiences I work with. My work does not require a clear label or diagnosis, and for many people, not knowing is itself the most important place to begin.