I earned her undergraduate degree in Education and Mental Health from New York University before taking a sharp turn into the clothing design and production world. It did not take long, however, before I realized that she was looking less forward to her fashion job each day and more forward to her volunteer work with families and adolescents at Brooklyn-based shelters and hospitals. This insight led her back to NYU to obtain her graduate degree in clinical social work and a position working with adjudicated adolescents and their families. Adolescence—defined by exponential changes and an emerging capacity for self-awareness and identity formation—represents a thrilling and critical period of development in my experience. I is impassioned to help families not just survive but also thrive during this dynamic stage of life. I believes in the efficiency and efficacy of evidence-based practices such as CBT, DBT, and Motivational Interviewing, but not to the exclusion of the more humanistic and person-centered approaches. I understands that negative patterns of behavior often serve a purpose and collaborates to get to the source of the issue so that change becomes not only possible, but also sustainable and transformative. I maintain a goal-oriented focus while walking an effortless line between reflective and straightforward communication, resulting in a therapeutic whole greater than the sum of its parts.