“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them..“
– Maya Angelou
You are Unique
Every person is unique and valuable, each offering the world something specifically important. Sometimes the busyness of life, both internal and external, clouds our vision and makes remembering this challenging.
Life is full of transition – providing endless opportunity to assess and further develop the person we want to be. As we attempt to see our way forward, we often develop patterns of thinking and behavior that prevent us from fully showing up in our lives. I believe all persons have the capacity to live rich, meaningful lives and that mental health recovery and discovery is a process available to everyone.
My Approach
My approach to mental health work is strength-based, person-centered, multi-cultural, and feminist, using the principles of the Mental Health Recovery Model as the foundation in all the work I do with clients. I am compassionate and appropriately direct. I am LGBTQ+ affirming, an advocate for LGBTQ+ identifying people and their relationships, and I am aware of the challenges, oppressive stereotypes and systems confronting the LGBTQ+ community.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing will play a role in our work together, focused by an integrative approach to mental health. Just as you are unique, we will discover those approaches that work best for you. In deep consideration of this, my years of continuing education have focused on training in a variety of therapeutic modalities including EMDR, Solution-Focused, Positive Psychology, and more.
I respect you as your own best expert. While I find exploration of the past useful, our work will focus more on the ‘here-and-now’ to realize and effect change.
Who I Serve
Though I provide individual services to all, I am specifically educated in and committed to serving the following populations:
- Children and Adolescents
- Young Adults
- Women
- LGBTQ+
I am credentialed as a Child Mental Health Specialist. When working with children and adolescents I am positive, present, playful, and developmentally mindful. I work to build a safe and fun environment in which children and adolescents can explore and learn to recognize and communicate emotions. Through art, books, activities, play, and the building of trust we work on better self-control, positive reinforcement, developing strengths, impulse control, self-talk, emotion regulation, and the fundamentals of the brain/body connection.
Building trust and allowing space for unfiltered communication and disclosure is paramount. To better achieve this, my work with children and adolescents typically occurs in a one-on-one environment including the client and me. Though I am available to parents at any time for consultation and support, it is important that children and adolescents see therapy as their process and one in which their privacy is honored.
Although legally minors cannot claim therapist-patient confidentiality in the same way as an adult, I maintain a safe space for children and adolescents in which they know that I will not be reporting all of the information discussed during session to their parent(s) or guardian. If there is an issue that I determine needs to be brought to the attention of their parent(s) or guardian, I will work with my client to determine the best way to communicate it to the people that need to know.