New to Grow
I am a 74-year old cisgender white woman who grew up in the midwest. I've entered the field of marriage and family therapy after many other careers. I was drawn to this work through my own personal work with therapists I loved and admired. For me, the process is the very "meat" of life. Seeking to release old stuck patterns, seeking to understand, seeking to become all that we can be! We are born to be connected to others, yet we are taught in many cultures to be fierce individuals. We are born into a gender with expectations for what that means from ourselves and others--and our physical gender may not even match our inner experience! It's no wonder that we struggle to find our way through our biographies. Before becoming a therapist I worked for 25 years as a Waldorf educator. I worked with all ages--Kindergarten through high school. This is a developmental education and an artistic one. I am always informed by our developmental tasks through life, well into our final years. I also enjoy stepping into creative, imaginative when clients are open to it, even if just to think about a problem in a new way. My imagination serves me when I am with someone. I have experienced a great deal of trauma and loss, but my experience is never the same as yours. With your help I can step into your experience through my capacity to imagine.
The first session is a chance to get to know each other. Not only will I find out what brought you to therapy and what your current circumstances are, but you will find out about me. What is is like to sit in my presence? What is it like to talk to me? Do I seem to "get" you? Though it can feel uncomfortable and a little scary to meet with a stranger about your problems, it should feel soothing at times and leave you feeling hopeful. My job is not to push you to feel more than you're comfortable with, but to meet you right where you are. I am confident that you have a place inside that knows exactly what you need and our job is to make space for it and honor it.
I believe that my biography and the personal work I've done is are my greatest assets as a therapist. There are few experiences clients have that I cannot relate to. I have worked with all sorts of people in my life, and I find it easy to interact with many different ages and types of people. My Self is my instrument in the session. I pay close attention to inner responses I might be having so that I can quiet things that are coming up for me and preserve the space for you. I don't shy away from humor now and then, and I strive to see us as fellow humans on a very difficult journey.
I love to work with people who are seeking.--a way out, a way in, a new way! When we are stuck there is usually a way in which we are contributing to our stuckness, even when we're in horrible circumstances that we can't change. Though we can't always change our circumstances we can change our beliefs and responses to them. Whether you're stuck in your depression, your reactivity, your anxiety, your circumstances, or your relationship I believe we can find an orientation to those feelings that is freeing and presents you with options.
Other specialties
I identify as
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Have you ever felt that you were of "two minds?" "Part of me would like to...but the another part is terrified." Or maybe you've had an interaction where it felt as if a switch was flipped and you flipped out! Though they can be disconcerting, these are common human experiences. IFS helps us understand the many "voices" we experience inside as parts of ourself designed to help us through. Rather than feeling that we're populated by extreme emotions and reactions, we can feel that we're leading an inner "team" that has our best interest in mind and only needs our guidance to function with more ease and peace. I am a Level 1 trained IFS therapist working toward certification.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Our emotions exist for a reason! They are energies flowing through our bodies and they're chock full of important information. They have connection to our past and future experiences, and their function is to make sure we are safe, included, loved, and cared for. Dropping into our emotional responses allows us to explore our triggers, sensations, beliefs and behaviors, We can connect our present day experience with our past experiences and develop compassion for how we have learned to cope. Through imaginative work we can even go back and rewrite the past! I have done extensive training in this modality.