Let’s get the formalities out of the way:
I graduated with my Master’s of Art in Psychology in May 2020, and became licensed as a mental health counselor (LMHC) in 2022. I began my career working in community mental health as a clinicial case manager, and also worked for years with incarcerated individuals on healing the trauma that so often leads to re-traumatization through entry into the carceral system. I am now in full-time private practice.
The psychological theories I most prominently apply in my work are Psychodynamic Theory, Existential Theory, and Humanistic Theory. I’m also a certified Transformation Coach. You can read more about my general philosophies about my work — and why I work how I do — by clicking here and here.
How I Work:
First things first: the most important elements of my working style are my lived-experience and my intuition; I came to this work professionally after being the long-time client of a highly-skilled therapist, and my personal work with her taught me more than any graduate class I might ever take. This matters because, as clinicians, we can only go as deep with our clients as we’ve been able and willing to go with ourselves.
I work through connection and collaboration. When I’m in-session with a client, I am all in — completely focused and giving them 100% of my energy, knowledge, and emotional capacity.
I do not typically implement worksheets and other “assignment-y” activities into my work. I believe the information gathered via these kinds of activities can be more meaningfully collected through intentional conversation and intentional collaboration with my clients. I do recommend that clients have a notebook and writing implement available for all sessions, however, as a written trail of crumbs leading us back to what we once knew — even for only a moment — is often both practically useful and emotionally transformational.
Why I Work This Way:
I work from a place of values. This means that my work and my life are almost completely integrated, because having a fully integrated life is something I personally value. This means I will often show up to sessions in my workout clothes, having gone to the gym just before our call or after having dropped my kids off at school. This kind of co-prioritization — prioritizing everything that matters to me instead of just one area of my life that matters to me — is how I engage in congruent living. I do not expect everyone to operate this way, as not everyone shares my values. And yet actively engaging in living my values — even when they don’t look like everyone else’s — is one way that I walk my talk.
Besides me showing up to our sessions in gym gear, I might also conduct our sessions from my front porch or from the front seat of my car. While this isn’t typical — I’m usually perched comfortably in one of my offices — allowing for the possibility that my life circumstances might require me to show up for you in an unexpected place gives me the freedom say yes to all of my life. I look at this way of operating a business as a radical departure from the patriarchal and capitalistic binds of “professionalism,” a ridiculous and unnecessary concept that keeps us bound to systems that don’t serve us, and from honest connection that does.