What you probably most want to know is a) do I know what I’m doing and b) what inspires me to work with clients struggling with overwhelm, guilt, shame and loneliness.
I love working with clients with these struggles because I’ve been there. My experience helps me understand my clients in a way I couldn’t without having lived it. I know the hopelessness and despair well enough to have my own personal map out.
Your map will be different than mine but I want you to know I fought my way through and I believe you have the strength and resilience to make it out, too.
A little insight into my struggles, I’m a great intellectualizer/researcher. This used to be my very favorite defense mechanism. When I was feeling burnt out and exhausted I thought, okay, how can I learn more about burn out and exhaustion? How do other people deal with these struggles? I spent hours chasing solutions that worked for other people. I worked so hard on building the right life for myself from the outside in.
It took some time for me to understand the important information my own feelings offer. What I need is deeply personal and rooted in my own experience. I credit my own therapy for helping me get comfortable with this idea and rebuilding my life from the inside out.
Because I’ve gone through it, I know what it takes to get out. I work best with people who are fed up with being unhappy and are willing to make some changes.
I’m not the therapist who only asks questions and nods along. I’m in it to do the hard work with you from the beginning. We’ll talk about whatever you need to talk about, nothing is off limits. And, know this, we’ll laugh a lot, too.
As for the first question, yes, I know what I’m doing and I’m really good. I started my career in 2005 working with survivors of interpersonal violence. I directed the children’s programming for a local interpersonal violence shelter and created a curriculum for children recovering from abuse.
From there, I worked for a community agency assessing and treating people referred by the judicial system who were struggling with untreated trauma, substance abuse and secondary mental health diagnoses.
I opened my private practice in 2010 while continuing my work in crisis health assessment/management. In 2012 I transitioned solely to private practice. Since then I have focused my professional resources on learning everything I can to help the people I work with.