my journey.

Remember when you were a kid and people asked you what you wanted to be? I always wanted to be a counselor, starting young with baby sitting, then moving on to camp counselor, swim instructor, and crisis specialist. When graduating college with a BA in Psychology and English, it was my time to start a family, so I became a special education teacher and put my Masters on hold. When my kids were old enough, I went back to school get my MS in Psychology to follow my passion. I gravitated towards Attachment and Personality Theories, Individual Psychology, and was trained in EMDR and DBT. I love a puzzle, a challenge…my analytical brain thrives when I have something to think about. Working with people makes me happy, if not, I would have probably been an engineer, lol.

Putting together my life experience and training, I worked with adolescents in residential mental health care and in private practice, which brought me to working with the families, not just the individual. This is what led me to couples counseling. Not all therapist like couples counseling. You have to be able to sift through both sides of the conversation, or argument, and validate both people, be present in the discussion and lead it to be productive and helpful.

When working with individuals, it is important they feel seen and heard. People don’t take the time to listen. Everyone has an opinion that they want to share, and often people don’t get heard. My goal with individuals is to help them generate a strong sense of self and awareness of what they want in life. It is important that we develop our authenticity and and stand in our identity, not what others what us to be.

My passions has led me to presenting information, back full circle to teaching. Working as a Qualified Supervisor, I am able to support counselors just starting out, and they keep me on my toes by asking insightful questions on how to approach clients. When providing CE (continuing education) to fellow therapist, I get to to spark interest in new ideas and strategies, which keeps me engaged in the learning process. Creating classes and retreats has allowed me to reach more clients while creating a community of like minded people.