Let me be upfront about who I am before we talk about anything else.

I am direct. I don't sugarcoat. I will respectfully call you out on your bullshit. We will probably cry, laugh, and yes, I swear in sessions (and a lot outside of sessions).

I stopped doing weekly therapy.

After 15 years of doing what school and insurance told me to do, I listened to what my couples were actually telling me. The ones who got the best results weren't the ones who came every Tuesday for two years. They were the ones who went deep, fast, and without interruption. So I made a decision. No more weekly sessions. Intensives only. Full days of concentrated, uninterrupted work that gets further than most couples get in a year of traditional therapy.

I use three modalities almost no one else combines.

Emotionally Focused Therapy. Brainspotting. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. Each one goes deeper than talk therapy alone. Together they are a completely different category of work. Very few therapists in the country are trained in all three.

I have done my own hard work.

Divorce. Starting over from scratch. Rebuilding a life in a country that wasn't mine. I know what it feels like to sit in that chair. That lived experience is not separate from my clinical skill.

I keep my practice small on purpose.

A tiny number of clients at a time. That means you get someone who shows up fully, every single time. Not a burned out therapist running on fumes with you being a client #35.

If you want safe, PC, and comfortable, I am probably not your person. If you want someone who will go all the way in with you and keep it real, let's talk.

As of March 2026, 15 years as a therapist. But if you count the 9 years of school across 4 countries first, closer to 24.

I did not take the short road to get here. I studied in Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States, switching languages and cultures along the way, before finally landing my graduate degree and clinical license. By the time I sat across from my first client I had already lived through more reinvention than most people do in a lifetime.

Was it worth it? Every single year of it.

Because here's the thing about doing 9 years of school and then 15 years of clinical work… you stop guessing and start knowing. You've seen enough, read enough, and sat with enough human pain to recognize patterns fast, go deep quickly, and not waste your clients' time.

I'm still in training by choice. Still flying to advanced intensives, still in bi-weekly consultation with leaders in the field. Not because I have to. Because after all that investment in getting here I'm not about to coast.

The short answer: couples and individuals who are stuck and have tried everything else.

The longer answer:

For couples:

Feeling like roommates. That slow quiet drift where you love each other but the intimacy, passion, and real connection have disappeared.

The same fight on a loop. Different topic every time, same outcome, nothing ever resolves.

One person pursuing, one person shutting down. Both exhausted. Neither feeling heard.

Infidelity and betrayal. The aftermath of an affair and the question of whether trust can ever come back.

Being on the brink of divorce but not quite ready to give up.

Commitment issues and relationship ambivalence. Loving each other but not sure this is right.

ADHD in the relationship. When one or both partners have ADHD and the dynamic has quietly become one person carrying everything while the other feels constantly criticized and misunderstood.

Parenting conflict. When you love your kids but can't agree on how to raise them, and the parenting disagreements have become the new battleground for everything else that isn't being said.

For individuals:

Old wounds and attachment patterns that keep showing up in every relationship.

Anxiety, depression, and trauma that talk therapy alone hasn't touched.

ADHD and the way it shows up in self worth, relationships, and the exhausting feeling of always being too much or not enough.

Parents who are losing themselves in the chaos of raising kids and have forgotten who they are outside of the role.

Partners whose spouses won't come to therapy but who are ready to change their part of the dynamic.

People rebuilding after divorce or a painful breakup.

Across everything:

Something is keeping you stuck and you haven't been able to get past it on your own or with the help you've tried so far. That's exactly where I come in.

Yes. And honestly I LOVE this work just as much.

Here's the thing: relationship patterns don't live in a vacuum. They live inside you. The way you attach, the way you shut down or push harder, the wounds you carry from childhood or past relationships, all of that shows up in every relationship you have. Working on yourself individually is some of the most powerful relationship work you can do, whether your partner is in the room or not.

I work with individuals who are trying to understand their own patterns before bringing them into a relationship. People who want to do their own deep work first. Partners whose spouses won't come to couples therapy but who are ready to change their part of the dance. People who are navigating a painful breakup, divorce, or the aftermath of betrayal.

I use the same powerful combination of tools with individuals that I use with couples, such as Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy, Brainspotting, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. Same depth, same intensity, same commitment to actually moving something real.

So yes. I'm a marriage therapist who sees individuals. Because in my experience the two are inseparable. You can't have a healthy relationship without first doing the work to know yourself.

Start by getting specific about what you actually need. "Marriage counseling" covers everything from a therapist who sees couples twice a month for communication skills to someone doing deep, intensive trauma-informed work with multiple modalities. Those are not the same thing. Know which one you're looking for before you start searching.

Then look for these things.

Specialization. The best marriage counseling near you will come from someone who works exclusively or primarily with couples. Not a generalist who squeezes you in between individual clients.

Evidence-based training. Look for post-graduate certifications in approaches like Emotionally Focused Therapy or Gottman Method. These take years to learn properly and make a real difference in outcomes.

A format that matches your urgency. If your marriage is in real pain, weekly 50-minute sessions may not cut it. The best marriage counseling for a struggling couple is often intensive work-concentrated, deep, and fast enough to actually outpace the damage.

A real human on the other side. Read their website. Watch their videos. Get on a consult call. You'll know within ten minutes whether this person can actually help you or whether you're going to spend the next year nodding politely at each other.

I'm in Wake Forest, NC, just outside Raleigh. If you're looking for the best marriage counseling in the area and you're serious about real change, let's talk.

Not a headshot and a Psychology Today profile. That's how you end up with someone who nods for 50 minutes and sends you home with a worksheet.

Here's the short version of what actually matters.

They specialize in what you need. Not everything. Not couples on Tuesdays and kids on Thursdays. Your specific thing, deeply.

They sound like a human being. Read their website. If it sounds like a brochure, keep scrolling.

They have real credentials. LCSW or LPC is the floor. Look for post-graduate training in evidence-based approaches. That stuff takes years to learn and it shows.

Your gut says yes on the consult call. That's the one that matters most.

Ethnically yes. But Kazakhstan is where I actually grew up, so Central Asia, not Russia. Different place, same directness. My people don't do small talk and are very direct, and so am I. That's probably the most Russian thing about me.

I showed up in America in 2006 with a suitcase and a plan to work for 3 months. Fifteen years, one marriage, one divorce, two kids, and three countries later, here I am. Still here. Still building. Still figuring it out like everyone else.

That matters because I am not a therapist who learned about hard things from a textbook. I learned about them by living them. Starting over with nothing. Rebuilding identity in a language that wasn't mine. Sitting in my own grief and fear and choosing to keep going anyway. That experience lives in the room with me every single session.

What I've built here is deliberately small. I see a tiny number of clients at a time because I refuse to be the kind of therapist who is too burned out to actually show up. You will never be a name on a waitlist to me. You will be the person I was thinking about on my morning walk.

I travel for training every year because I genuinely believe this field keeps evolving and I owe it to my clients to evolve with it. I consult with other leaders in the field regularly because even after 15 years I think a second pair of eyes makes me better.

And I take real time off. With my kids. With my husband. With myself. Not as a luxury but as a requirement for doing this work well.

You get a therapist who has actually lived some version of what you're going through. Who won't flinch at the hard stuff. Who will tell you the truth even when it's uncomfortable. And who genuinely loves this work after 15 years because watching people find their way back to each other never gets old.

It's a starting point. But it's not the whole answer.

Psychology Today find a therapist is basically a directory. It shows you who's licensed, where they're located, and what insurance they take. That's useful. But it doesn't tell you whether someone is actually good at what they do, whether they've done their own deep work, or whether sitting across from them will feel safe enough to say the things you've never said out loud.

The profiles all look the same. Warm smile, stock photo background, a list of specialties that somehow includes everything. It's hard to tell who actually knows what they're doing and who just paid for a premium listing.

Here's what I'd suggest. Use Psychology Today to build a shortlist. Then go read their actual website. Watch a video if they have one. Get a feel for whether they sound like a real person or a brochure. Then get on a consult call and trust your gut.

The right therapist isn't necessarily the one with the most reviews or the closest location. It's the one you feel safe enough to fall apart in front of. That's not something a directory can measure.

Wake Forest, NC. It's a small town just north of Raleigh, think tree-lined streets, good coffee, and nothing like the frantic energy of a big city. Which is kind of the point. You're coming here to slow down and do something important. The setting helps.

The office is at 201 Wait Ave. It's private, quiet, and intentionally not clinical. You won't find a sterile waiting room or a receptionist asking you to fill out forms on a clipboard. Just a space that feels safe enough to say the things you've been holding for years.

Flying in? RDU is about 20 minutes away. Driving from out of state? People do it all the time and they'll tell you it was worth every mile.

Yes, I have three kids, if you count my husband:)

I know what it's like to be thrown up on by two kids simultaneously. I know what it's like to watch your child struggle with a learning disability and feel completely helpless because the things that come easily to other kids are just a hundred times harder for yours, and there is nothing you can do to make that not true. I know what it's like to hold your breath at the dinner table waiting to see if tonight is going to be a hard ER night because of health issues.

So when couples come to me exhausted, overwhelmed, and running on empty, I'm not nodding from behind a clipboard. I actually live this too.

Healing takes time. While every case is unique and I don’t know exactly how long it will take, this is what I do know:

The couples who experience the most meaningful progress commit to once a month 1 day (6 hours a day) intensive for approximately 12 months. This creates safety, continuity, and measurable transformation.

I get it, that sounds like a lot. But it took years to get to where you are, and it won’t take just a few hours to fully heal. Healing is a process, and consistency matters.

That said, each 6-hour intensive is powerful. From the very first day, you’ll be able to breathe easier, feel hopeful, and start experiencing real shifts in your relationship.

I say all this to be completely transparent about how I work, so I don’t waste your time.

I'll be straight with you-this is not cheap. And it's not meant to be.

A single day intensive is $3,000. A full two-day retreat is $6,000. If you're adding Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy there's an additional medical screening fee of around $400 paid directly to the prescriber, plus the cost of the medicine itself (around $60).

Now here's the context that matters.

Most couples who come to me have already spent thousands on weekly therapy that moved slowly, lost momentum every week, and never quite got to the root of anything. When you add up a year of weekly sessions at $200 a pop.. that's over $10,000. For incremental progress at best.

What I offer is different. Concentrated, uninterrupted, deep work that goes further than most couples get in years of traditional therapy. Real results. No open-ended commitment to showing up every Tuesday indefinitely. You do monthly 6 hour a day retreats for about a year, give or take depending on your case, and then you are done for good!

Compare it to the cost of a divorce- financially, emotionally, and for your kids, and it looks very different.

Is it the right investment for everyone? No. But if you're serious about real change and done throwing money at something that isn't working, let's talk.

Not even a little bit.

My office is in Wake Forest NC but my clients come from everywhere. New York, California, Texas, Florida, I've had people book flights from across the country because they couldn't find anyone doing this kind of work where they live.

The only requirement is that you show up in person for the intensive itself. Everything we do-EFT, Brainspotting, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy requires you to actually be in the room. You can't do this work through a screen and get the same result. Some things just require presence.

What I'd suggest if you're traveling in: build a buffer day on either side if you can. Arrive a day early to settle in and leave a day later to integrate before jumping back into real life. The couples who rush home the morning after their intensive are the ones who lose the work fastest.

RDU airport is 20 minutes from my office. Wake Forest is a genuinely lovely town to spend a few days in. Consider it part of the experience.

Simple. Book a free 30-minute consultation call.

It's a real conversation where you tell me what's going on, I listen, ask some questions, and we figure out together whether working with me is the right fit for where you are right now.

If it is, we'll talk through which intensive makes the most sense for you and map out next steps. If it's not the right fit, I'll tell you honestly and point you toward something better suited to your needs.