About Me

I am hoping you will get to know a little about me and how I view my work. I spent 9 years of my working life as an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter at a local college. I was able to grow my knowledge of ASL and of the Deaf culture. Through this work, I noticed a lack of providers trained to support Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals through their trails. This fueled my drive to be an available resource for this community. I started my career supporting youth who were navigating the trauma of being placed in a group home. In this setting, I created groups to support these youth through social skills, learning self regulation skills, and learning about healthy relationships. I also met one on one with these youth to help them heal from the trauma of this huge life change. The focus of this work was also to open up the possibility of a beautiful future filled with choices to create the life they want for themselves. I then transitioned to doing in-home therapy for the most vulnerable in our community. I gained valuable experience learning about the child welfare system, the profound grief and challenges with identity formation that are faced by these youth. I was also trained to use adoption competent treatment methods and the unique parenting challenges that accompany foster or adoptive relationships. I saw that a secure attachment relationship and felt safety (physical and emotional) are key to long term success of healing trauma in families. I implemented trauma informed parenting strategies and attachment exercises to help create this environment of safety within families. Through all of this work, I learned the value of resiliency in trauma recovery. Taking a look at the journey that life has taken each person on, they were able to see new insights about their life story. They were able to really see their strengths, acknowledge areas that were opportunities to grow, and forged ahead with new self knowledge to roll through life’s challenges. Although not everyone is born with a natural tendency towards resiliency, I have seen that these skills can be learned and practiced to create a sense of wellbeing.