Hi! I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor based in North Carolina currently. I provide teletherapy services to clients in North Carolina and Vermont. I spent most of my adult life in Vermont and will be moving back to Maryland soon where I was born and raised. I received my master's degree in counseling psychology from Antioch New England Graduate School, New Hampshire in 1992 and My Bachelors in Transpersonal Psychology from Burlington College, Vermont, 1987. I do IFS, EMDR, and Somatic work to help clients find lasting and transformative changes in their lives. I incorporate Spirituality into my work. I teach mindfulness and The Law of Attraction, and creative visualization. I am a CPTSD survivor, and I have used these therapies personally to find lasting peace and joy. I enjoy providing compassionate, supportive therapy, and deep insight orientated, transformative therapy. I enjoy helping clients reduce stress, heal codependency, and heal trauma, depression, and grief. I teach clients to find their inner confidence, and courage, to set boundaries with others and stop "people pleasing". I teach clients to Love themselves and communicate clearly and compassionately with others. I help clients to get to the root of their problems, learn to regulate their emotions, and find peace in the midst of worry and distress. I help clients learn to set boundaries in healthy relationships and to leave abusive relationships.
During our first session, we will discuss what brings you to therapy, and how I may be helpful to you. I will make suggestions about goals for therapy, and how my therapy approach may help you meet your goals. I will ask you questions, about your background, family, work, and your mental health history. You may feel free to ask me any questions about our work together. This is a time to evaluate also whether working with me feels like a good match for what you are looking for.
My greatest strength is my thirty years of Licensed Counselor experience working in a variety of settings. Additionally, since completing an intensive IFS training in 2011, I have incorporated and perfected this approach into my life's work. This approach gets us away from " the medical model", and it is the most compassionate and transformative approach to therapy I have found.
I have been using IFS in my practice since 2011. In IFS we learn to embrace and feel compassion for all aspects of ourselves including those that we wish would just go away. Instead of pushing our painful emotions away, we are taught to interact with them and heal them. Many clients find lasting transformative internal positive shifts using IFS. They develop greater self-compassion, confidence and peace and are able to more fully embrace life in the moment. I have witnessed hundreds of clients experience significant healing of chronic conditions including trauma, anxiety, and depression through IFS therapy. It gives me great joy to see so many clients feel relieved of burdens they have been holding for years after an IFS session.
I have been using EMDR in my practice since 2005. It has helped hundreds of clients reduce and heal from trauma, chronic anxiety, chronic depression, grief, and many other conditions. In an EMDR session clients shift their emotions from fear to peace, or from hopelessness to hopefulness. These shifts are long lasting and transformative for many clients.
I practice compassion focused therapy. A motto in IFS is " All our parts our good". We explore our internal parts, our shadow self, our inner children in a loving, curious, manner. We learn self-love, and acceptance, which is at the heart of a peaceful, happy life with good relationships.
I have been teaching mindfulness in my practice for over 10 years. In mindfulness-based therapy, we learn to incorporate mindfulness in our everyday life, which helps us get back in our body and grounded and out of distressing thoughts.
I have been incorporating Somatic Methods in my practice since 2010. These techniques help us to get out of our heads and " the story", and back in our body where the real healing occurs. We learn to regulate and release uncomfortable emotions and body sensations. I have witnessed many clients reduce and heal chronic pain in Somatic sessions.