"Being a highly sensitive person means experiencing the world in vivid color—feeling deeply, loving wholeheartedly, and noticing the beauty others often miss. Your emotions are not 'too much'; they are a reflection of your depth, your intuition, and your extraordinary capacity for connection."
Are you feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, or doing everything you can, and still ending up in the same place? You're not alone. You don’t have to keep pushing through on your own. 🌿
Your emotions might feel like overwhelming—too intense, too fast, too hard to control. You’ve gotten so used to holding it all together that no one sees how much you're carrying underneath. You’re navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship stress, or feeling like you're going through the motions of life.
If you’ve been told, "You're too sensitive," it can start to feel like a flaw—and your sensitivity is a deep and powerful part of who you are. ✨
You don't just want to feel less overwhelmed—you want to feel more awake in your life: more present, curious, and intentional about how you show up each day. 😊You don't want to get through the day, you want to truly live—feel connected and create your best life.
I work with highly sensitive people (HSP) and deep feelers want more resilience, peace of mind, and connection—and aren’t always sure how to get there.
Therapy offers a space to reconnect with yourself—a place to exhale, reflect, and feel seen. It’s a space where your sensitivity is honored, your experiences are validated, and your growth is supported with care. 💛
With over 20 years of experience and advanced training in DBT, mindfulness-based therapies, and trauma-informed care, I bring both heart and direction to the process. We’ll work side by side to build practical tools that help you manage emotions with more ease, navigate relationships with confidence, and move through life feeling more balanced.
✨ Change doesn’t come from just pushing harder. It comes from pausing, noticing, and choosing a new way forward. ✨
You are capable of more than just getting by.
You CAN feel steady in your emotions, connected to who you are, and confident in how you move through the world. You can create a life that is meaningful, grounded, and fully your own—a life you love. 💫
I’m here to support you every step of the way. 🙏🏼
About Me
Hello and welcome. I’m Kim, and I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m so happy you found me! As a highly sensitive person myself, I know what it feels like to experience the world in vivid color — the deep emotions, the overwhelm, and also the incredible capacity for empathy, creativity, and connection. I also know how important it is to have the right support to help turn those big feelings into strength and resilience.
For the past 27 years, I’ve dedicated my career to helping other highly sensitive people and big feelers find balance, calm, and confidence in themselves. My training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was my first introduction to mindfulness, and it completely changed my life. I’ve continued to deepen my work with mindfulness-based therapies, trauma-informed care, and skills-based approaches that empower people to manage emotional intensity and live with greater ease and joy.
Therapy, to me, isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s art, science, and heart combined — tailored to help you create the life you want. I will meet you where you are, help you understand what’s holding you back, and give you tools that really work.
Outside of my practice, I love spending time with my husband, my two kids, and our Dobermans, Juno and Gracie. I’m happiest when I’m surrounded by music, design, architecture, plants, and the beauty of learning new things.
My Education
MSW, Master of Social Work
College of St. Catherine/University of St. Thomas
2003
SW License #16550, MN, 2005
Modalities I Use
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Radically Open DBT (RO-DBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
DBT Prolonged Exposure for trauma (DBT-PE)
Solution-Focused Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
What Is DBT — and Why Does It Work?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan. Originally designed to help people struggling with intense emotional pain, suicidality, and self-harm, DBT is now considered the gold standard for treating Borderline Personality Disorder. Over time, research has shown that it’s also highly effective for a wide range of challenges related to emotion dysregulation — including anxiety, depression, trauma responses, and impulsive or self-defeating behaviors. DBT is an emotion-focused behavioral therapy, and it works by helping people accept their current emotional experience while also learning the skills to change the patterns that no longer serve them.
As an intensively trained DBT therapist, I use this approach to support highly sensitive people who often feel overwhelmed by the intensity of their emotions. My work integrates DBT with mindfulness, trauma-informed care, and deep compassion to help clients find calm, clarity, and meaningful change.
A Therapy Born from Lived Experience
In 2011, Dr. Linehan shared publicly for the first time that she herself had experienced chronic depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm in her younger years. Her personal journey is what inspired her to develop a treatment for people suffering in the same way she once did. DBT is the result of that promise — a therapy built not just on clinical research, but on deep empathy and understanding.
What Does “Dialectical” Mean?
The word dialectical refers to the idea that two seemingly opposite things can be true at the same time. For example: “I’m doing the best I can” and “I want to do better.” DBT helps us move away from rigid, black-and-white thinking and toward a more balanced, flexible mindset. This is especially powerful for highly sensitive people who often experience extremes in thought and emotion. In therapy, we work on accepting your reality as it is while also creating meaningful change — not either/or, but both/and.
Core Goals of DBT
The primary goals of DBT are to help people stay present, regulate their emotions, cope with stress in healthy ways, and improve their relationships. For highly sensitive people, this means learning how to feel deeply without being consumed by your emotions — and how to move through life with more intention, resilience and confidence in your own choices.
What Does Adherent DBT Include?
Adherent, or comprehensive, DBT includes four key components: weekly individual therapy with a trained DBT therapist, skills training groups to build and practice new tools, phone coaching for in-the-moment support between sessions, and a therapist consultation team to ensure high-quality care. While not everyone needs the full model, many benefit from its structure, consistency, and clarity.
The Four Core Skill Modules
DBT teaches four powerful skill sets. Mindfulness is the foundation — it helps you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. Distress Tolerance teaches you how to get through emotional crises without making things worse, and how to accept what can’t be changed in the moment. Emotion Regulation helps you understand what’s behind your emotional intensity and gives you tools to manage and shift painful emotions over time. And Interpersonal Effectiveness shows you how to communicate clearly, navigate conflict, ask for what you need, and maintain healthier, more balanced relationships.
DBT for Highly Sensitive People
If you often feel like your emotions are too intense, too unpredictable, or just too much — DBT can help. It offers a framework that honors your sensitivity while giving you the tools to feel more stable, present, and in control. You don’t have to shut down who you are to feel better. You just need the right support to work with your emotional depth — not against it.
If you’re ready to explore whether DBT is a good fit for you, I’d love to connect.
DBT CHANGES LIVES
DBT Skills Training Group
What to Expect in DBT Skills Group
DBT skills group is a structured, supportive space where you’ll learn how to manage intense emotions, reduce distress, and improve your relationships — all while building a life that feels more grounded, intentional, and fulfilling.
The purpose of skills group is to help you develop new ways of thinking, feeling, and responding to life’s challenges. If your current patterns are causing emotional pain, conflict, or overwhelm, DBT skills can help you change those behaviors in practical, life-affirming ways.
This is not a traditional therapy group. It’s an in-depth learning experience, where you’ll be introduced to over a hundred powerful, evidence-based skills over time. Each session begins with a brief mindfulness practice, followed by time to share your experience using the previous week’s skill. After a short break, we’ll move into learning new skills through engaging teaching, group discussion, and weekly practice assignments.
You'll be positively supported as you integrate these tools into your daily life — and begin to see meaningful change in how you respond to emotions, relationships, and stress.
If you're enrolled in comprehensive DBT, weekly participation in the skills group is a required and essential part of treatment. However, if you’re primarily interested in learning DBT skills and don’t need full DBT treatment, you’re welcome to join the group on its own.
DBT Skill Modules
🌿 Mindfulness
The foundation of all DBT skills, mindfulness teaches you how to stay present in the moment without judgment. You’ll learn to observe your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations with greater awareness, which helps create space between feeling and reacting.
🔥 Distress Tolerance
These skills help you get through emotional crises without making things worse. You’ll learn how to tolerate pain, manage urges, and cope with intense feelings in healthy, effective ways — especially when you can’t change the situation right away.
💛 Emotion Regulation
Emotion regulation skills teach you how to understand, name, and shift overwhelming emotions. You’ll learn how to reduce emotional vulnerability, respond more effectively, and increase experiences of positive emotion.
🤝 Interpersonal Effectiveness
These skills help you navigate relationships with more confidence and clarity. You’ll learn how to ask for what you need, set boundaries, manage conflict, and maintain healthy connections — without losing yourself in the process.
⚖️ Walking the Middle Path
This module is especially helpful for individuals struggling with all-or-nothing thinking. You’ll learn how to balance acceptance with change, hold multiple perspectives at once, and move away from extremes. Middle Path skills help you build flexibility, compromise, and mutual understanding in relationships — and within yourself.
Prolonged Exposure for Trauma
DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) is a powerful, evidence-based approach to treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), developed by Dr. Melanie Harned — a student of Dr. Marsha Linehan. Rooted in the principles of traditional Prolonged Exposure therapy and mindfulness, DBT PE integrates trauma treatment within a supportive, skills-based structure. This approach is uniquely designed to help individuals process traumatic experiences while also learning how to regulate intense emotions, manage distress, and build a life that feels truly worth living.
PTSD often shows up alongside other complex challenges. Many individuals struggling with trauma also experience mood disorders, dissociation, substance use, personality disorders, or eating disorders. In fact, research shows that 66% of people with PTSD meet criteria for at least two additional diagnoses — and up to 30% attempt suicide. When trauma remains untreated, it can intensify emotional pain, increase the risk of self-harming behaviors, and interfere with a person’s ability to heal and move forward. DBT PE is designed to address the root of that pain by treating both the trauma itself and the emotional dysregulation that so often comes with it.
A central component of PTSD is avoidance — the natural urge to push away painful memories, overwhelming emotions, or reminders of the trauma. People often avoid both internal experiences (like thoughts or feelings) and external situations (like places, people, or conversations) that bring up distress. While avoidance can feel protective in the short term, it keeps the nervous system stuck in survival mode and actually makes symptoms worse over time. DBT PE helps individuals gently and gradually face what they’ve been avoiding, so the brain and body can begin to process what happened and reduce the emotional charge those memories hold.
What makes DBT PE especially effective — particularly for highly sensitive people — is that it doesn’t force anything. It combines structure with flexibility, and courage with compassion. Through a step-by-step process grounded in trust, validation, and skill-building, you’ll learn to approach your trauma-related memories and triggers with greater resilience and clarity. Over time, the weight of what you’ve carried can begin to lift, and you can reconnect with the sense of safety, agency, and self-worth that trauma may have taken from you.
If you’re living with the effects of trauma and are ready for a path forward that is both research-backed and deeply compassionate, DBT PE may be a powerful next step. Together, we can work toward healing the pain of the past, calming the present, and building a future that feels unshakeable, hopeful, and aligns with what matters most to you.
FAQs
What does it mean to be highly sensitive?
A highly sensitive person (HSP) is someone who feels emotions deeply, picks up on subtle cues, and tends to process experiences more thoroughly. It’s a normal, inborn trait that can bring both challenges and unique strengths like empathy, insight, and intuition.
What types of therapy do you offer?
I specialize in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and mindfulness-based approaches. I work primarily with highly sensitive people who struggle with managing emotions and want to build more balance and resilience in their lives.
What can you expect from therapy with me?
My approach is collaborative, compassionate, and skills-focused. I’ll help you identify patterns that cause distress, teach you tools to manage emotions, and support you in creating the life you want. We will work at your pace, with plenty of encouragement and practical guidance along the way.
Do you offer in-person or virtual sessions?
I offer both.
Do I need to be in individual therapy to join a DBT skills group?
No — you’re welcome to join the DBT skills group without being in individual therapy. Many people join the group to learn concrete tools and skills to manage emotions and improve relationships. Learning all of the skills takes six months. Some opeole repeat the group twice to strengthen their ability to use and integrate them more fully into their daily lives.
How long will therapy take?
This is different for everyone. Some people work with me for a few months to build specific skills, and others continue longer for deeper growth. We’ll regularly check in on your progress and adjust as needed.
What is your cancellation policy?
I ask for 24 hours’ notice for cancellations. Late cancellations or no-shows are charged the full session fee, as that time is reserved just for you. Late cancellations or no-shows for skills group are charged $50.
How do I get started?
You can schedule a free 20-minute consultation call with me to see if we’re a good fit. During the call, we’ll talk about what you want to work on and how I can help.
What if I’m nervous to start?
That’s completely normal! Starting therapy is a big step! I do my best to create a welcoming space where you feel safe, heard, and supported.
Do you take insurance?
Yes, I currently accept Optum, United Healthcare (UHC), UMR, Medica, Aetna, Quest Behavioral Health, Carelon Behavioral Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Cigna, Hennepin Health, Anthem EAP, Optum EAP, Minnesota MA, Anthem EAP and Medicare. I also accept private pay. If you have out-of-network benefits, I can provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance.
What are your rates?
If you’re using private pay, my current rate is $190/hr, $155/45 min & $120/30 min. DBT skills group rates are $100/2 hours. If you’re using insurance, your cost will depend on your plan’s copay or coinsurance.
