Learn about my journey and commitment to walking alongside others on theirs.

I’m a highly dedicated psychoanalytic psychotherapist with two doctoral degrees- a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD; research doctorate) in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP; clinical doctorate)- who is independently licensed with the following certifications: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner-Board Certified (PMHNP-BC), Certified Addictions Registered Nurse-Advanced Practice (CARN-AP), and Advanced Practice Holistic Nurse-Board Certified (APHN-BC). As a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, I was trained and am licensed to provide psychotherapy. For the past decade, I’ve treated adults facing every psychic challenge imaginable. Since 2022, I have maintained a solo private practice in Canandaigua, New York, providing outpatient psychoanalytic psychotherapy to adult individuals, couples, families, both in person and virtually. At this time, I have a waitlist for new patients.

For background, my health care journey began in Arizona, where I volunteered over 1,000 hours at a local hospital by the age of seventeen and was in awe of how nurses changed lives. Inspired by the power of healing nurse-patient relationships, I went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) with a minor in psychology at the University of Arizona in 2015. While working with psychiatrically hospitalized Veterans, I discovered my passion for psychiatric mental health nursing and recognized my gifts in this area. After graduation, I worked as a board-certified psychiatric-mental health registered nurse and supervisor in hospitals serving adults, Veterans, and children.

While working full-time as a psychiatric mental health nurse, I completed a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) in 2018, followed by my PhD and DNP in 2022, with my dissertation focusing on therapeutic relationships in virtual versus in-person care. Over the years, I have received numerous awards for my scholarship, including more than $175,000 in merit scholarships. Currently, I am co-authoring an academic book on the integration of psychoanalysis and nursing and have authored 17 peer-reviewed publications, presented at over 30 national conferences, taught in mental health nursing programs (Emory University, Michigan State University), and precepted graduate students from many universities. In Jan. 2026, I began my tenure as an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, where I teach graduate courses in research and mental health nursing while conducting scholarship and research projects on psychoanalysis and nursing. You can watch a recent CBS Channel 8 Interview I did about my research here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xB7lp9u78.

Psychoanalysis has been foundational in my nursing career from early on, as I sought to discover the deeper meanings behind my patients’ struggles. I became devoted to learning how to help people understand themselves and make foundational change possible. While in graduate school, I started psychoanalytic immersion in 2018, starting with my own personal psychoanalysis with a seasoned psychoanalyst. In short, I know psychoanalysis “works” because I’ve lived it. Psychoanalytic training is often described as guild-like in that one’s teachers, supervisors, and analysts profoundly shape one's clinical sensibility and technique. In my clinical lineage, I am connected directly and indirectly (by one generation) to major figures in the psychoanalytic tradition including Sheldon Bach, Bruno Bettelheim, Ester Bick, Michael Feldman, Selma Fraiberg, Anna Freud, Erna Furman, Jane Hall, Bertram Karon, Otto Kernberg, Henry Krystal, Betty Joseph, R.D. Laing, Hildegard Peplau, Irma Brenman Pick, Roy Schafer, and Richard Sterba (who was analyzed by Sigmund Freud in Vienna), among others. This lineage reflects an ongoing intergenerational transmission of psychoanalytic thought and clinical practice and forms an important foundation for the way I approach psychoanalytic psychotherapy today.

Since 2020, I started formally training with programs at the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (affiliated with New York University; prelude to training program and psychoanalytic fellowship), San Diego Psychoanalytic Center (psychoanalytic fellowship), Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (one-year intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy program), Contemporary Freudian Society (New York; two-year psychoanalytic psychotherapy program), International Psychotherapy Institute (one-year infant observation program), and the Institute of Psychoanalysis (post-foundations program) within the British Psychoanalytical Society. Currently, I am in my final year of the two-year transference-focused psychotherapy program at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research. In Fall 2025, I began the couples therapy program at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Beyond didactic training, I participate in weekly immersion within the psychoanalytic community, including study groups, peer consultation, and individual supervision. Collectively, my patients benefit from my ongoing dedication to psychoanalysis and commitment to professional development.

Beyond the classroom and consultation room, since 2023, I have founded and facilitated the renowned Finley Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Fellowship, a year-long, accredited, introductory psychoanalytic continuing-education course for licensed professionals and graduate students. While I am engaged in many professional organizations, I co-chair the Membership Committee and also chair the Advanced Practice in Nursing Committee at the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA), which I also founded. In Western New York, I have a mission to share the gifts of psychoanalysis and created and manage the Western New York Psychoanalytic Library, open since Sept. 2025, to foster free access to psychoanalytic literature for this region (see page link above on the menu) and also organize the Western New York Study Group affiliated with APsA (please reach out to me if you’re a licensed professional and would like to be involved in our growing community).