If that's the case, you've probably been ignoring your feelings for a very long time and have been sweeping them under the rug and hoping that they'll go away. They won't. And that big pile of stuff under there will just keep getting bigger until there's no room for anything else.

Please don't wait any longer to start feeling better—it doesn't matter where you start to address things, just that you do start. You can begin by calling, and we can talk about what your needs are and whether I might be a good match for them.

Therapy can help by creating a space in your life to focus on yourself: your needs, how to meet them for yourself, how to make your life more of what you want it to be. Gaining the insights and tools to care for yourself is like getting the owner's manual to your own life.

We all need the support of friends and family, but there's no substitute for the clear feedback of a trained professional who is outside the situation and truly objective, and able to give a unique perspective that's incredibly useful. Some things therapy can help you achieve include:

• Understand why you do what you do, and gain tools to change old patterns that don't serve you
• Learn how to give yourself the same compassion and caring you routinely extend to others
• Eliminate harsh self-criticism and damaging double standards you only apply to yourself
• Forgive yourself, or others, for actions or mistakes you'd like to stop carrying around
• Increase resiliency and ability to cope with difficult life stressors
• Build skills to effectively manage and reduce anxiety, fears and/or phobias and panic
• Learn to love and accept yourself "as is", opening the door to all positive change, especially related to body image and body size/body hatred issues
• Develop communication skills that will deepen and enhance your relationships
• Learn the habits that create happiness and lasting satisfaction with life
• Create a sustainable belief system and/or spiritual philosophy that will carry you through life's many challenges

Absolutely not. While it's unrealistic to expect overnight change to long-established patterns, most people see significant results in a matter of months. You are always in charge of your process, and you say when you've gotten what you came for, whether that's after one session or many. And you don't have to come every week. Whatever your schedule and/or budget allows, I can work with whatever configuration fits your needs.

No I can't; I'm not a medical doctor. You'd need to see either your primary care physician, or a psychiatrist or PMHNP (psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner) for that kind of care. However, with your authorization, I can work with your other providers to comprehensively manage your care.

My best answer to that is to listen to your gut. If you feel comfortable, cared for, that you're being treated with honesty and clear ethics, that you can say anything and not be judged—these are all good indicators of goodness of fit between client and therapist.

I encourage and solicit feedback from my clients throughout the therapeutic process, I want to know that you are getting what you need. And if I feel I cannot provide it, which is the case from time to time, I encourage you to seek what you need elsewhere. You want to be helped, I want to be helpful, and no one benefits if that isn't happening.

If I have time, I’m happy to provide a phone chat completely free of charge, where we can get a sense of whether I’d be a good match for your needs. For those who’d like a little more information about how working with me might be, I offer a 20-minute online telemedicine session for a fee of $20 payable at the start of our meeting through my Square payment app, which can take card payments remotely.