Hello! Thanks for pausing your search to take a look at my profile. I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and clinical counselor educator (EdD). My experience has been trauma-focused with emphasis on the experiences of those who have survived group-focused negative experiences. Resilience is the hallmark of those who are survivors of interpersonal challenges and, with a strength-based focus, we will work together to reinforce your unique, perhaps forgotten, talents and abilities.
The goal of our first session will be to explore motivation, identify challenges, and set initial goals that will indicate when success has been achieved. From a solution-focused perspective, quantifying the scope and impact of a presenting concern helps to develop realistic goals that can be accomplished. I focus on understanding each person's subjective experiences and the impact these experiences have on one's quality of life. From a strength-based perspective, we will collaborate to identify areas of undeveloped potential.
As a provider, my greatest strength is a deep belief in the power of clients to change. As a believer in mindfulness and affirmations, I encourage clients to release those experiences that hurt them in the past but hold fiercely to the lesson the experience contains.
Through the lens of integrative theoretical models, the impact of membership in groups that experience societal stressors, marginalization, or interpersonal trauma informs our processing of subjective experiences, individual strengths, and resilience with a focus on leveraging personal qualities into emotional growth.
. . . involves deep, open, honest exploration of race, racism, privilege, and oppression and how navigating and responding to a system of unequal access and unearned privilege can appear to be a mental and/or behavioral health issue.
The answers to one's problems lie within the person. Exploration of how problems have been resolved in the past as an indication of strengths that can be leveraged in the present is the focus of this approach.
Focusing on mental health rather than mental illness is a focus of the work involved in accepting reality while committing to confront those challenges within one's control. Humor and realistic decisions to change are the first steps to successfully confronting problems. Making changes "head first" is the approach to a better quality of life and positive change.