I love a quote that says, "Be the person in life you needed": for some of us that is a fireperson, for others a doctor, and for me it was a mental health professional. I needed someone to help me understand depression, anxiety, neurodivergence, and trauma when I was a teenager, so I became a counselor that focused on those issues. I have had many family members and friends that have struggled with mental health issues throughout my life, so I think some of my initial interest in psychology before moving to counseling was simply to understand my family better.

I've worked with several hundred clients so far, with ages ranging from 6-80 years old. Although I think I can work with anyone who is over 10 or 11, I think the clients that I have worked best with were ones that felt rejected or misunderstood by their environment growing up (the others and outsiders lunch table meets here). Anxiety, Depression, Identity Development, gender/sexuality issues, career/life goals, and PTSD would be my main areas of focus that I have helped clients with.

I am most excited to work with motivated clients that are making the difficult step of reaching out and starting their healing journey.

It's ok to be nervous! It's really awkward to sit across from someone and have a stranger (even if friendly) asking personal questions, and it's my job to help you work through the nervousness.

I wanted a combination of motivated clients and the ability to reach them. I have worked in several clinical and school settings, and the setting isn't as important as the initial motivation to start therapy. Thriveworks lets me connect with more clients across the state than I could with face-to-face practice alone.

I am a life-long learner. I find inspiration in the weirdest things (thanks neurodivergence), I love to learn things about different cultures, hear about different experiences, and feel that I will never run out of things to learn.

Clients should expect the first session to include a lot of questions to allow for history gathering, case conceptualization (a fancy phrase for naming the problem and the goals), and to review confidentiality and your protected information. The first session is also a time for you to ask any questions you have (though questions are always welcome) to help ease some anxiety around the therapy process itself.

By the end of the first session I want to have accomplished 4 things:

1. Discuss Confidentiality and the Privileged Information material.

2. Break the Ice and ease some initial anxiety (coming in is hard enough).

3. Gain some history into what brought you in, and some general bio-social information.

4. Have an initial goal or growth area to work on (or at least something vague to start with) by the end of session.

Something I learned in school that I try to adhere to: 'you are the expert on you'. I only get to spend a limited amount of time each week with you, while you see yourself all day. Although I work to be an expert on the mental health field, I'll always need your 'expertise on you' to make anything possible.

As an ADHD kid (semi-grown up), I have a rotating set of hobbies that seems to change every few months. I love music (listening and on occasion working on picking back up the guitar), usually have some sort of craft (braiding, weaving, potholders, painting (horribly), etc.), and when weather and my legs are permitting: I love to go to our local lake.

I love stories/narratives. I devour media from books, tv, movies, games, and anime; anything where I can find a good story.