Therapeutic Relationship
The most important part of therapy is the alliance between the client and the therapist. If you feel seen and heard by your therapist, you are more likely to benefit from going to therapy.
Our working relationship will be the foundation for the “real work” we’ll do together. I value this relationship highly and strive to ensure our time together is a time you feel seen, heard, safe, and accepted.
Our Work Together
Our sessions will be a dynamic dialogue—a conversation. We will combine current evidence-based approaches to help you gain insight and understanding about your past, while also helping you to identify ways you can get immediate relief from your symptoms in the present day.
As we move through our work together, there may be some laughter and tears.
I will be with you each step of the way.
Doing What’s Effective
Emotional storms are a part of life. At times, these emotional storms can be overwhelming, chaotic, and intolerable.
This is why we will work together to help you build an “emergency kit” of practical skills to better tolerate anxiety, depression, or emotional storms when they arise.
Learning more effective ways of navigating these emotional storms will ultimately help get you closer to your long-term goals.
Building a Meaningful Life
An additional part of our work will help you identify what a meaningful life may look like for you and how you can achieve that.
We will work together to identify ways you can fill your life with behaviors, relationships, and activities that bring meaning to your life—things that make you feel like you want to wake up in the morning, increase your motivation, and replace other, less effective behaviors.
About Me
I earned my Bachelor’s in Social Work and a minor in Addiction Treatment Services in 2011 from the University of Nevada, Reno. After graduating, I worked briefly in child welfare before returning to school to earn my Master’s in Social Work, also from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2013.
As a graduate student, I assisted with a project to implement Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training with children who were placed in emergency shelter foster care. This was when my love of DBT started.
Drawn by my love of good food and the great outdoors, I relocated to Portland in 2013. Once in Portland, I continued to work with high-risk populations, including individuals requiring inpatient psychiatric hospitalization and individuals who were incarcerated. I transitioned to private practice in 2019.
When I’m not in session with my clients, I spend time hiking, rock climbing, practicing yoga, and enjoying quality time with friends and family.
When not outdoors or on my yoga mat, I’m usually trying out a new recipe from Martha Stewart or Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen.