Our Team
Hi! I am a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor. I believe that therapy has the potential to change your life! Therapy is a safe place where you can explore who you are and why you are… it’s a place to make meaning to feelings and relationships, and manifest a happier and freer way of life… without having to put a pretty bow on the end and say “but, I’m fine, really, no worries!”.
Clients that work with me would say that they and I are engaged in a deeply personal relationship. I use our relationship to help clients’ understand other relationships (either with themselves, partners, family members, peers, and alike) and how those relationships may be impacting them. It’s important for me to help my clients explore that we are all one person within a bigger system… within our families and our communities. Who are we within those contexts? How did we become who we are because of the systems we have been put into?
I work with older adolescents, adults, and couples. My work has been described as “relational”, “trauma-informed”, “rooted in family systems”, and “long term”.
When I am not with clients, I spend my time in my own therapy, exercising, eating and cooking yummy food, and chasing around my three young children.
I am excited to meet you one day soon and am thrilled you’re taking a leap and starting this new chapter in your life!
*I understand the realities of maintaining a budget in today’s world. I am committed to ‘money’ never getting in the way of a prospective client’s journey to therapy. Please reach out no matter your financial circumstance. We will find what works for you.
Hey there! Finding a therapist can often be a difficult first step towards making change, with comfort and fit being factors that can take a lot of exploration and time. I believe that therapy is an important tool for creating an intentional space to explore how we exist in the world and to practice communicating our emotions and needs.
As a relational and trauma informed therapist, I believe that the relationship between a client and therapist is the foundation of healing and growing. In this way, comfort and trust are key to providing a space to freely set intention and dig into meaningful work to pave a path towards growth. Trusting your experience will help lead our work to recognize themes and obstacles that are both keeping you and leading you to where you would like to be.
A core belief of my practice is that your feelings and self awareness carry a great deal of wisdom about what you need in order to heal and grow. Our life experiences and oppressive systems can cause us to mistrust our own intuition and lead us to question our own judgment. With this, I use a combination of systems theory and motivational interviewing to highlight the power we each have to move towards change and rebuild trust within ourselves.
I enjoy working with teenagers, young adults, and adults who are ready to peel back some layers of self exploration. If you feel like any of this resonates with you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to start a conversation.
Your journey is the focus. No matter the story, I come free of judgment, with a readiness to listen and understand, to accompany untangling, healing, and discovering along the way. Because my focus and skill is meeting the client where they are, I love working with clients of all ages, identities, orientations, backgrounds, cultures, and abilities covering a broad spectrum of situations. I am happy to offer a brief introduction call at no charge to see if we’re a good fit.
What does a session together look like?
Adults and Teens:
An important part of a therapeutic session is having someone listen - really listen with the focus of your feeling seen, heard, and understood. Where we take it depends on where you are and where you want to go. In addition to talk therapy, I invite clients of all ages to actively engage in therapeutic exercises out of session as well as partake in expressive forms of therapy, including the using the sand tray, role-playing, using creative forms such as music and lyrics, to understand and tell a story, clarify goals, work through obstacles and towards their quality of self, relationships, and life. With teens, I lean in with genuine interest, using creative expression, empathy, and understanding of adolescence, so the teen client feels seen as a person and heard in their own way.
Children:
Children explore and share through play therapy, revealing valuable communication, providing means of processing emotions, and providing opportunity to learn and practice healthy responses and strategies. As a previous teacher with broad and abundant experience, I am comfortable and confident collaborating with teachers, behavior specialists, school counselors, administration, and other relevant stakeholders in a child’s educational and life experience. We often use strengths-based “challenges” outside of the session to reinforce new patterns.
Family:
With the family as the client, I provide a safe and positive grounding space for growing individual development, parenting, and family interaction. In a session, clients can find fun, humor (as appropriate), a nurturing space for healing and growing, and, at times, a warm, snuggly bunny!
Theory and Modalities:
What is the nature of our therapy? My therapeutic approach is eclectic, meaning I use a variety of theories depending on the person’s needs, worldview, and their means of communication, processing, and learning. Some of these the theories we can call upon include:
cognitive behavioral therapy - helps to identify and adjust driving negative thoughts and core values that affect emotions and behaviors, thus helping a client feel and live in more fulfilling ways
solution-focused therapy - identifies strengths and uses them to help achieve desired goals, quality life, and/or a fuller sense of self
relational therapy - explores the sense of self through the lens of the client’s relationships
narrative therapy - offers the agency to tell and redirect one’s story through a narrative experience
internal family systems - identifies “parts” within ourselves (ex. “There’s a part of me that…”), their purpose, and how to interact with them in ways that gives your fuller self a more intentioned sense of control and direction
dialectical behavioral therapy, which practices both the acceptance of one’s reality as it is as well as the means to change aspects of it
psychoeducation - provides information about the neurology, nervous system, psychosocial-biological development, symptom presentation, etc.
My relationships with clients are founded on cultural humility - always seeking to understand how one’s lived experiences have impacted the way they currently view and live life. Regardless of one’s identity or culture, I commit to continuously survey my own perspective, abandoning any assumptions about another’s experience/culture.
My style is active, meaning clients will have opportunities to participate in activities while in and between sessions. Together we customize tasks and experiences that connect the work in session to day to day life. This can involve books, music, journaling, art making lists, action items, movement - any active work is catered to what works for you!
About me: Hi! I have over twenty years experience working with children and families in various capacities, and I have learned that connecting with others is one of my most natural experiences. I am kind, caring, funny, and contagiously full of life! I have a wonderful family with two teens - together we love adventuring, trying new food spots, and sharing music together. I also love exploring trails with my dog, Pixie, having tea with my chickens, Mydoria, Big Mama, and Lisa, and snuggling up with a good book and any of my cuddly cats, Kowl, Zeke, Citrina, or Yoshi. And I can’t forget playtime with Bunny - who’s an absolute doll and is known to visit some sessions!