I grew up near Los Angeles, spending every moment I could exploring California’s coast, deserts, and mountains. I went to Harvard for college, where I studied social anthropology and filmmaking. After graduating, I worked leading wilderness backpacking trips for teens and guiding commercial whitewater rafting trips.

Experiences with friends made while teaching raft guiding overseas sparked my interest in a career in medicine. I attended the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, where I completed a masters focused on medical anthropology at UC Berkeley and my medical degree at UCSF. Though I had initially imagined becoming a primary care doctor, early in medical school I became interested in psychiatry and in the prospect of becoming a psychotherapist in particular. I completed my psychiatry residency at UCSF and one year of training in psychodynamic therapy at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.

I have worked in both ambulatory clinics and inpatient settings at a wide range of clinical sites. These range from San Francisco General Hospital and Citywide Case Management to UCSF’s and UCLA’s academic medical centers and the SF and Greater LA Veterans Affairs hospitals. I have training in both group and couples therapy, and for several years I have been a regular participant in a group of veterans and VA staff focused on building community, growing, and healing through surfing. Though I continue to practice psychiatry in other settings part-time, this website is for my independent practice providing individual psychotherapy and, when indicated, prescribing medication.