Professionally:

I’ve learned that whatever a person’s life experiences have been, they can be experienced as a crisis or a traumatic event when it exceeds the person’s capacity to cope. It is there where I like to come alongside and help the person sort out what is needed in order to heal and move forward in their life.

As a therapist, I take a strengths-based approach with clients by not only working to address the issues they are seeking treatment for, but also helping them to recognize and access their own resilience, abilities, and resources; using these to address present-day challenges that they face.

I utilize various therapeutic modalities depending on the person’s needs and goals for treatment, which can include EMDR, Narrative Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and others. My goal is to help people work through whatever pain they’re experiencing so that they can live in a manner that better supports their well-being and aligns with their values. This can look like helping a person process difficult life experiences in a more effective way in order to reduce the impact to them, teaching skills to grow the person’s ability to soothe and center themselves when feeling emotionally dysregulated or disconnected, and empathically challenging negative beliefs about themselves that do not reflect the full reality of who they are and their worth.

Professionally:

In my career I have worked in residential settings, outpatient, and Partial Hospitalization/Intensive Outpatient levels of care. I take a Person-Centered approach to therapy, so I act as a support and guide through the healing process. To work through unresolved trauma, I utilize Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Mindfulness practices. These are evidenced-based tools that will allow you to become un-stuck and move forward with your goals. I also have a CADC-I and specialize in substance use disorders or co-occurring disorders. If you use alcohol or substances to cope with trauma or uncomfortable feelings, I will provide additional coping skills for relapse prevention.

Professionally:

Healing happens in the context of safe and secure relationships. For this reason, I seek to create an atmosphere of warmth, empathy, and acceptance that allows clients to improve their personal insight, grow in understanding of their relationships, identify personal needs and values, and “be with” their emotions, especially the ones that are experientially difficult. I’ve seen that building a strong therapeutic relationship can help people, often rather quickly, start to identify what changes they want for themselves; it’s such an honor for me to get to come alongside to assist and collaborate in this process.

Professionally:

I learned that I not only enjoy but also have a knack for helping people while teaching yoga. I decided to combine this insight with my skills in the arts by seeking out training in art therapy at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I earned a dual degree in art therapy and counseling. I am credentialed in the state of Oregon as a licensed professional counselor. My post-graduate training and clinical experience has focused on the treatment of trauma. I also have specialized experience working with altered states of consciousness and non-shared realities in residential and outpatient settings.

 I approach the healing process from a creative lens that often appeals to imagination and metaphor, and therapy with me can include art making when it enhances the therapeutic journey. My theoretical underpinnings include existentialism, post-modernism, and feminism, and they manifest in my delivery of services through privileging the discovery of meaning and purpose, multiple perspectives, and equity. I value collaboration in therapy, and I always start by honoring the dignity of each person I work with by reminding them that they are the experts on their own lives. I view my role as a therapist as walking along side them on their path to offer support and guidance through the rough patches. Guidance can come in the form of offering mindful and somatic skills for regulating the nervous system, cognitive behavioral strategies for managing the intensity of thoughts and feelings that in turn impact actions, corrective emotional experiences through exploring internal family systems and reprocessing trauma through bilateral stimulation (EMDR), and building momentum for change with solution-focused questions and motivational interviewing techniques.

Professionally:

I view therapy as a collaborative process and that the client is the expert in their own life. I work with the client to create an individualized treatment plan to help them achieve their goals. I believe everyone experiences stressors in life that contribute to anxiety, depression, and PTSD. I take a Person-Centered approach to therapy to help support and guide the client through the process of healing through their unresolved trauma. To work through unresolved trauma, I utilize Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy. I am an adoption-competent therapist who graduated from the accredited Training for Adoption Competency.

Professionally:

I enlisted in the army in 2000 and served as a combat medic and mental health specialist. I first learned about neurofeedback early in my military career and it quickly became my area of focus. I am board certified through the BCIA and have spent the last 10 years working with soldiers, professional atheletes, and those working through attention deficits, PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addictions. For me, the possibilities of neurofeedback, and where it may lead us in our understanding of ourselves, is endless.