People tend to be drawn to jobs that use their strengths, and this allowed me to use them.

It's hard to describe a type that works best. I tend to enjoy the diversity of people I've come to work with.

Therapy is not instant or easy, nor is it about just feeling better or avoiding bad feelings. My goal as a therapist is to help you to find the best way to grow bigger and stronger than the struggles the world throws at you. Sometimes that can be intimidating or daunting, which is why I work to be just as supportive as I can be challenging as we work together towards this growth.

Learning something new, whether this about the world or about the person in front of me. This is part of why I feel such a connection with being a therapist. People aren't all the same, each person is unique, and often understanding the unique complexities is important for helping to guide the most important growth.

The first session can seem dry, largely because I need to get a lot of info from you to get that picture of who you are. It's usually the subsequent sessions that things become less formal and more open and free flowing.

The first session is mostly about getting the best initial picture I can about who you are, where you are coming from, what your strengths are, what tools you have already used and developed, what has worked, what hasn't, etc. This is all so I can help to better see where we can both get some early initial progress while also understanding how I can best help with your long term growth.

Everyone is nervous coming in the first time. First sessions can be really intimidating. It's why a lot of therapists will ask you for at least a 4 session commitment, because it's usually by then that things start to get more comfortable and settled.

In my spare time I am an artist, storyteller, and general wanderer. I like to hike and explore new places, create in my workshop, or entertain friends while enjoying tea or a nice campfire.

The fact that I am probably not what you may expect. Before settling down, I spent a lot of time traveling and working with a lot of different people and communities both here in the US and abroad with the Peace Corps. During my crafter days, I connected to a lot of different and unique groups of people and had a lot of experiences to draw from that are not part of the normal every day experiences. This often helps in therapy as it allows for a lot of unique and creative problem solving, as if the answers were simple or easy, you probably would have figured them out on your own already.