Training and Background
I received my Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) degree in Clinical Psychology from Indiana State University (2002) and wrote my doctoral dissertation on the social functioning of school-age girls and boys diagnosed with ADHD. During my final year of graduate school, I completed an APA-accredited clinical internship at the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health in San Bernardino, California, where I saw psychotherapy clients of all ages and conducted psychological assessment in their outpatient program. In the years that followed while working as a staff psychologist at a community mental health clinic in Northwest Indiana, I developed an interest in depth psychotherapy which led me to pursue further training in psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute (Certificate, 2008) and later at Loyola University Chicago’s Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy (Certificate, 2022). For over a decade now, I have been in private practice treating individual adults in Chicago.
I’ve also participated in peer consultation groups, including one focused on the assessment and treatment of adult ADHD and another one that considered how contributions from neurobiological and attachment research could explain the impact of trauma on self esteem and emotional regulation.
I’m a member of the American Psychological Association, the Illinois Psychological Association and the Therapeutic Assessment Institute.
On a personal note, I grew up in the Philippines and moved to the United States as a young adult. This experience has given me a deep appreciation for the rewarding but challenging work of piecing together a life story shaped not just by external circumstances but also by internal experiences of hope, dislocation and loss.