With over 15 years experience as a marriage and family therapist, and as a graduate of UCLA and Phillips Graduate Institute specializing in many modalities, and blending Psychodynamic and Somatic approaches. she is currently in private practice working with a broad spectrum of clients. Among her areas of expertise are working with personal growth, improving relationships, helping clients recover from addictions, trauma recovery, anger management , and stress management.
In addition to being a prominent relationship therapist, Iris's social activism perspective has motivated her teaching career which included 12 years of teaching psychology , stress management and the psychology of women.
Iris is an interactive, solution-focused therapist. Her therapeutic approach is to provide support and practical feedback to help clients effectively address personal life challenges. She integrates complementary methodologies and techniques to offer a highly personalized approach tailored to each client. With compassion and understanding, she works with each individual to help them build on their strengths and attain the personal growth they are committed to accomplishing.
Over the past 15 years Iris was able to specialize in many different areas of psychotherapy , beginning with running domestic violence and anger management groups in a community and private practice setting, she has helped many individuals gain the necessary tools to transform their anger into finding ways to express themselves through authentic communication gain stress management skills and de escalation skills . She has also helped many women who felt stuck in abusive relationships to find healthier life situations.
Iris also worked in addiction and recovery settings where she facilitated groups, and worked with individual clients and their families . Her approach to addiction included resolving the underlying emotional pain that the addiction served to mask, helping people gain mindfulness and stress management skills and using east and west psychology tools such as meditation, communication skills, inner child work, sensorymotor psychotherapy, and brainspotting.
As a college professor , Iris gained her expertness in fields like stress management and holistic psychology. Her approach to therapy includes addressing all of the components of our common humanity, the mind, which includes cognition and emotion, the body and the spirit. Although issues may arise in the mental oe emotional realm, Iris is a firm believer that the body is a source of information and change and that the unconscious communicates through the body.
