Services
About My Clients
I work with clients from many backrounds and specialize in working with mental health professionals and healthcare workers navigating vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout. My clinical experience had involved work with mental health professionals, health care workers, immigrants and refugees, youth in psychiatric residential treatment, bereaved families, veterans and individuals in suicidal crisis.
My Background and Approach
I hold a Masters of Social Work with a concentration in Mental Health and Trauma from the University of Denver and a Bachelors of Science in Child, Youth and Family Studies from Portland State University. I provide Individual therapy sessions informed by Somatic Experiencing ™, Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I work with clients to lessen mental suffering, build skills, improve relationships and lead fulfilling lives. This work often involves listening for bodily responses to stress and trauma, learning about what triggers our individual threat responses and practicing ways to access a sense of safety and connection with self, environment and others when we feel hijacked by a fight/flight or freeze response. We explore the connection between activating events, automatic thoughts, core beliefs, sensations, emotions and behaviors and learn ways to disrupt patterns that no longer support us.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I believe every behavior is a strategy to meet a need. For this reason, I lead with curiosity and compassion towards parts of us that may be confusing, cause personal or relational harm, hold extreme beliefs or engage in behaviors that compromise our stability. I believe even our harshest inner critic or our most depressed parts hold protective intent. Change takes time, dedication and labor. Change also requires a level of hope, desire and curiosity about possibility. I offer a safe space to explore the connection between your thoughts, feelings, sensations, beliefs and behaviors while building capacity for the change you wish to experience in your life.