Specialties
For over 15 years, I’ve helped people just like you learn life-changing skills, gain deep insights & awareness, and grow strong in self-compassion. As my clients release old carried layers of shame, judgment, fear, and self-doubt their energy is freed up to move forward in their lives with authenticity and joy.
Between my years counseling in inpatient hospital settings, outpatient counseling, and group therapy IOP programs, I see people heal every day. It takes time, willingness, honesty, and courage. Some clients just need some time to talk in a nonjudgmental space. Other clients come to counseling ready to do some hard work. Either way, however you show up and whatever you need, I’m here for you with both an open heart and a toolbox full of skills. I’m happy to share them with you. I know they help because not only do I see their positive effects in my client’s lives, but I use them in my own.
Trauma Recovery
"Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you" – Dr. Gabor Mate. The mind and body continue to respond to trauma long after the immediate threat or danger is chronologically over. It is a natural survival response for the body go into fight/flight/freeze/ fawn. Equally present is the body’s natural ability to activate the thrive response. We each possess the incredible capacity for post-traumatic growth when given support, care, compassion, and tools. Engaging and strengthening your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is your body’s natural way of re-establishing a sense of safety and connection again. Trauma recovery is a truly personalized and dynamic journey.
Emotional Overwhelm
Emotions can be intense, confusing, and hard to manage. When this happens, keeping up with daily living, liking yourself, thinking clearly, meeting goals, and being emotionally available in relationships can seem impossible. Emotional overwhelm can include depression, anxiety, stress, mood and bipolar disorders. With support and skill, it is possible to listen to emotions, without amplifying or suppressing them, and explore what they are telling you, because the emotion often signals a need. Emotions, when properly attended to can help you align with your needs, values, and sense of self. They can be a guide, not an enemy. This attunement process often brings a deeper sense of self understanding and mental clarity.
Life Transitions
Jon Kabat-Zinn, a mindfulness teacher reminds us that life changes moment to moment, day to day, and over the course of months and years. We literally move through life in a continuous series of transitions. None of us can escape the inevitability of change and loss; it is woven into our very humanity and our common human experience. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to go through and is often coupled with anger, fear, sadness, loss, and grief. We don’t need to go through it alone. It takes time to re-orient and when we’re ready, life transitions can present dynamic opportunities to listen inward, examine old beliefs, consider new priorities, lean into personal values, and show up in our lives with an open heart and renewed self-compassion.
Codependency
Codependency can be described in many ways due to it’s wide variety of characteristics. While the patterns are diverse, codependency in essence is a loss of a healthy relationship with one’s self which profoundly effects relationships with others, leading to repetitive, unfulfilling and frustrating cycles. This phenomenon happens for many reasons: dysfunctional family of origin, abusive environment, past trauma, loving someone who suffers from alcoholism or addiction, and more. There is hope and recovery is possible. Reclaiming one’s own self is an amazing journey: listen to your own emotional signals, reframe distorted thoughts, challenge old beliefs, set boundaries, discover interests and strengths, be the author of your story.
