LCSW, 43 years of experience
I believe that every person possesses the inner strength and resources needed to find happiness and healing. As a transgender woman, I understand both the internal and external forces that can stir self-doubt, amplify fear, and lead to deep feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. I also know—through both personal and professional experience—that self-acceptance and joy are not only possible, but also within reach. Science consistently shows that those who seek support often find meaningful relief and lasting change. I bring to my practice a mindfulness-based approach grounded in compassion, presence, and affirmation. My work is especially focused on serving the LGBTQAI+ community, though I warmly welcome anyone seeking an empathic, nonjudgmental partner in their journey toward a more fulfilling life. In addition to my clinical work, I have served as an adjunct and visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and as professor and dean of the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies. My academic and clinical experiences have always been deeply interconnected, and both continue to inform my commitment to human dignity, resilience, and transformation.
My fundamental goal in our first session is to establish a connection, for the therapeutic alliance, according to science, predicts client outcome more than the method itself. In addition I want to learn about your world and life as you "experience" it. Most important, I want you to feel safe, heard, supported, and welcomed!
I offer a warm, positive, non-judgemental, and supportive approach because I believe most people know what they must do to make changes and to live more fully in the present moment. In my view, when a client feels accepted and supported by a therapist, it foster the client toward self-acceptance and freedom. My goal is to help clients give themselves the benefit of the doubt that so many of them extend to others, but not to themselves. Thus, I strive to create an experience in which clients not only feel heard and understood and supported in making the changes they want for themselves and learn mindfulness methods, but also to begin to love themselves as they are!
I work primarily with LGBTQAI+ clients, though I warmly welcome all who seek an empathic, non-judgemental partner in their journey toward a fulfilling life.
Mindfulness is an evidence-based method used to help people manage or regulate emotions, but most important this method leads to self-love, self-acceptance, and more internal space and a vote in what happens in one's internal and external life.