About Me

I am a counselor with over 11 years of experience in therapeutic and therapy programming. I have built my career developing skills to support those who have experienced trauma including cumulative traumas, attachment trauma, vicarious and secondary trauma, and trauma related to accidents or injuries. I also have significant experience working with neurodiverse and queer populations. I started in therapeutic work because of experiences in outdoor education and adventure guiding where I got to see how amazing it can be to support folks through hard moments so they can become excited, curious or engaged with themselves, the world around them, or the people around them in a different way. In my therapeutic work, I draw some of my systems thinking from a background in economics and international studies and often try to look at how the systems we are embedded in may be impacting and individual group or family. This background also leads me to pursue research and science backed approaches to therapy. I am a consultant in training for EMDR, trainer in the Community Resiliency Model, and I have also pursued training in mindfulness based approaches such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Through all of this, I work with my clients to build an awareness of their strengths as well as their struggles. Many of my clients are highly capable people who for some reason are struggling with feeling fulfilled in their lives or feeling connected to those around them. We work to remove thinking, feeling, relating, and behaving patterns that may be related to earlier experiences. Often my clients find that they are managing their lives and their relationships, rather than engaging in them. I also have significant training and experience working with neurodiverse populations. Many people might label my clients as "high functioning" because they are often masking or people don't see what it takes for them to manage relationships. Many times these clients are dealing with internalized beliefs about how they should be or what they shouldn't do and can feel an underlying sense of loneliness or shame that significantly impacts their relationships. They may also be dealing with struggles related to rigidity or black and white thinking that impact their relationships and functioning outside of a narrow set of bounds. They may be highly competent and together in one area of their lives and struggling with impulsivity, emotional upheaval, or significant distress in others. In addition to exploring patterns and developing compensatory skills, we are often working to develop mindfulness based skills, explore how they can be more authentic in relationships, and reprocessing memories that have led to significant shame and pain. Finally, I have significant experience working with queer adolescents and families. One of the barriers to treatment for this population can be providers thinking everything is related to their identity and over focusing here. The other is often the opposite where a provider might not see how these folks might relate to the world differently or the world might relate to them differently. I cannot promise that I understand everything because every person, family system, and situation is unique. I can tell you that I have extensive personal and professional experience and training with this community and I will strive to not commit either of these areas. For all of my clients, I believe people are inherently resilient. You have survived something to be able to be sitting here and reading this. I don't need to fix you or change you. We need to work together to explore what keeps you going and what is keeping you stuck so you can move closer to the life you want.