As a child, I found that my friends often came to me for advice. While I typically did not have the answer, I enjoyed listening to them and helping them explore ways to work through their problems. This is an aspect of my life that I desired to continue as an adult.

Clients who are willing to be self-reflective and work to change needed aspects of their lives in order to reach their goals tend to work well with my type of counseling process.

I am most excited to work with clients who want to be in counseling. Those who realize that having someone to talk to, to listen to their concerns, to be honest with them (even though this is not always easy to hear) in order to encourage them on the path to their goals, are the ones who I have found have the most success in counseling.

The thought of talking to a stranger about yourself, can be scary. But if you can overcome that fear for a moment, and give me a chance, you will find you have nothing to fear from me. I listen non-judgmentally; emotions and tears do not scare me; and if you do not agree with some of my ideas on how your goals may be accomplished, that's okay, I won't get mad, we will just brainstorm until we find something that fits with your life and goals.

I like the framework of Thriveworks. It is a nice combination of private practice and an agency. It takes care of the "housekeeping" items for me so that I can do what I do best as a counselor - working with people!

Honestly, I'm inspired by my clients. When I see someone working hard to improve their lives and understand themselves better, it makes me want to do the same.

Clients should expect to find a down to earth, friendly person who is excited to get to know them. We will spend time getting to know them and why they chose to come to counseling. We will discuss their history, in order to find out how it has impacted them either positive or negative, however, if there is something they do not wish to share at this time, that is fine, we can come back and revisit it at a later session. It is important for clients to realize that the first session is just a beginning. We will not have solved all their issues by the end of it, but hopefully we will have identified the first part of the path we want to take towards healing and possibly even taken a step or two along that path. Counseling is a way to help clients along their journey towards a more healthy and joyful life. This journey will have ups and downs, sometimes clients will walk several steps forwards, but then stumble back a few, this is to be expected. But the hope is that at the end, the client will be able to look back and say, "wow, look at how far I've come!" How fast clients walk along their journey is really up to them and how much work they want to do and how honest they want to be with themselves and with me.

The first session is used to get to know the client, not only why they came to counseling, but also who they are as an individual. They will be encouraged to discuss their history, their current situations, their hopes for the future, and why they decided to come to counseling. All this to create goals to work on as well as to provide me incite as to how I can best structure future sessions in order to help them achieve their goals.

I enjoy spending time with my family. We like to travel, watch movies & tv shows, and play games together. I also like to play with my cats and take them on walks.

I believe that respect is very important in all situations and with all people. I believe that the respect I show others is a reflection on me, and not a reaction based on if they have been respectful towards me or not. However, I find that when I treat others respectfully, often times it is returned.