Our clinicians
Meet our team
Fit is the whole decision in therapy. Read a little about each clinician, then reach out and we will help you find the right one for what you are working through.
Meet the clinicians
Ruth Hanning, LMHC
Quinton Kakaley, LMHC
Marcia Lowry, LMHC
Nana Park, MA
Ben Levenson, MA
Maryam Rahmani, MA
Sloane Leach, MSW
Mary Patricia (MP) Reed, MA
Laura Buckley, LMHC
Kim Tamaren, LMHC
Eren Santana-Bykofsky, MA
Geneva Harburger, MA
No one lists that as their focus. Ask us and we will point you to the right fit.
Choosing
How to choose, when every profile looks similar
Therapist bios tend to read alike. Most list the same handful of approaches and describe a warm, collaborative style, which leaves you comparing photographs. A few things genuinely help.
- Start with the problem, not the person
- Someone whose work centers on early childhood is a different clinician from someone who works with couples after an affair, even if both list "anxiety" among their specialties. The closer the match between what you are dealing with and what a clinician does most days, the better the early sessions go.
- Read for specifics
- A bio that names the actual populations and situations a clinician works with is telling you something. One that only lists modalities is telling you less.
- Practicalities are not a lesser consideration
- Distance and scheduling are the most common reasons therapy quietly stops. A clinician twenty minutes away with an evening slot you can reliably make will usually produce a better outcome than a better-matched clinician you cancel on twice a month.
- You do not have to decide alone
- If you are not sure, say so on the first call. Matching people is part of our job, and we do it every week.
What matters
What predicts whether therapy works
Decades of research point at the same answer, and it is not the modality.
The strongest single predictor is the therapeutic alliance: whether you and your clinician agree on what you are working on, agree on how, and whether you feel the person is genuinely on your side. That holds across approaches. A well-matched clinician using a method you find slightly odd will generally beat a poorly matched one using your preferred method.
Two practical consequences. First, how you feel after the first two or three sessions is real information rather than a mood. Second, if it is not working, saying so is part of the work rather than a rejection of it.
What our clinicians share, and where they differ
Everyone here works from the same starting point: care is built around the person rather than a template, culture and identity are part of who you are rather than a complication, and we coordinate with the rest of your care when that is part of your picture.
Where they differ is training and focus. Some work primarily from a cognitive behavioral frame, some psychodynamically, some in trauma-specific protocols like EMDR, some in play and art therapy with children, and several are Gottman-trained for couples work. Each profile states which, along with the populations they work with and the languages they offer.
Some of our clinicians are fully licensed and some are pre-licensed and practising under supervision. Each profile says which, and names the supervisor. Pre-licensed does not mean less careful: it means the work is reviewed regularly by a senior clinician, which is more oversight than most fully licensed therapists still have.
If nobody here is right
That happens, and it is a normal outcome rather than a failure.
If what you need is outside what we do, or the right clinician here has a wait you cannot sit through, we will say so directly and point you somewhere specific rather than handing you a directory. Our mental health resources page lists the directories and services worth using.
Not sure who to start with?
Reach out and we will match you with a clinician suited to what you are working through, and who takes your insurance.
Questions