About

As a therapist, I value relationships, creativity, integrity, vulnerability, compassion, soulfulness, embodiment, growth, and play. 

As a therapist, I am warm, calming, grounding, caring, and perceptive. As a person, I am creative, optimistic, loyal, a little flamboyant, playful, and funny, too. I understand what it is like to be an outsider, a renegade, outspoken, and a free thinker. I also understand what it is like to want to belong, feel connected, do better, and feel good about yourself. In our work together, I will occasionally tell you a bad joke, but I will always support and challenge you to grow in ways you choose.

I've lived a richly flavored life.  After college, I explored life off the beaten path. While I always knew I would eventually become a therapist, I intentionally waited until later in life to become licensed. My journey was sometimes miraculous and sometimes traumatic. I had many dramatic life experiences that while exciting, ultimately left me feeling anxious and burnt out. This affected my body so much that I had a hard time handling daily life. That sent me on a quest for true healing and I immersed myself in knowing body, mind and spirit in new ways.

The most profound work I experienced involved learning to recover from my traumatic experiences.  By actively paying attention to my nervous system, sensations, feelings, thoughts, and my relationship to food and body,  I was able to return to get back to functioning with resilience.  I incorporated this embodied trauma work with a mindful lens of self-compassion, practicing kindness toward self and others, and healing my younger self. It worked, and I was ready to complete my education.As a therapist, I have become devoted to the many processes of therapy that safely allows one to experience true embodied healing. I incorporate skills practice, process work, body, and experiential arts options in sessions. 

I am told I am calm, warm, nurturing, and enjoy a bit of humor now and then.  I support people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles who are seeking change after stress and trauma have left them feeling burnt out, dismissed and suffering from inner wounds and unwanted behaviors. As clients are ready, I help them gain insight, get centered in their bodies, and celebrate life as they choose.

As a person, I value relationships, creativity, integrity, vulnerability, compassion, soulfulness, embodiment, growth, and play. 

 My personal history included a deep dive into modern and butoh dance, and I was a performer with Honolulu's Iona Contemporary Dance for 19 years. In addition, I was a backup dancer in Hawaii's underground drag scene, the alternative music scene in the 90's, and contributed choreography and costuming to many performance groups during that time. I also lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles with the intent to explore the university of life, art and love, and delved into the worlds of yoga, tantra, bodywork, movement and non-traditional relationships and lifestyles before returning to Hawaii to pursue and practice Hawaiian Lomi massage.  I returned to California to complete my degree in Clinical Psychology. I live with my husband, stepson, and a gorgeous rescue dog.

My cultural identification is bicultural, I am Japanese-American and Caucasian and grew up in working-middle class Hawaii to a large family of diverse ethnicities and beliefs.  I am sensitive to issues of race, class, and gender and am aware of how these aspects of my being inform my bias, privilege and stance. I am open to developing tolerance, insight and empowerment as defined by the world around me and those I work with.

I firmly believe in my duty to provide ethical service to the community. This is how I do it.

  • The Soldier Project, As a clinician, I volunteered with The Soldier Project. The Soldier Project was a non-profit that offered free, confidential and unlimited mental health services for Post 9/11 Veterans, active duty service members and their loved ones. https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/

  • The California Victim Compensation Board: I work with clients who qualify for services through Cal VCB. The California Victim Compensation Board is a state program dedicated to providing reimbursement for many crime-related expenses to eligible victims who suffer physical injury or the threat of physical injury as a direct result of a violent crime. CalVCB funding comes from restitution paid by criminal offenders through fines, orders, penalty assessments and federal funds. https://victims.ca.gov/

  • Volunteer facilitation and resiliency support to communities in need.

  • I sponsor one pro-bono and low fee client each in my practice.