LCSW, 16 years of experience
New to Grow
After sixteen years in this field, I’ve learned that most people don’t come to therapy because they want a new coping skill — they come because they’re done white-knuckling their way through life. I can help with that. I don’t believe in quick fixes or surface-level strategies. I help people get to the root of what’s really driving the patterns, reactions, or disconnection that keep showing up. Once you see it clearly, change stops feeling impossible — it becomes a possibility. My approach is relational, honest, warm and curious. I’m not a “smile and nod” therapist. I’ll ask questions that might stop you mid-sentence — not to catch you off guard, but to help you connect dots you’ve never considered before. I use evidence-based trauma treatments like EMDR and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), as well as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples. For those who want it, I integrate a Christian faith perspective — not as a script, but as another layer of meaning and hope. I also draw from nutritional psychiatry because, frankly, mental health isn’t just “in your head.” The mind-body connection matters — and the science backs that up.
The first session is less about me analyzing you and more about us getting a feel for how we work together. My goal is that you leave with a sense of direction—not fixed, but clearer on what’s been happening and what could actually help. Clients often tell me they leave our first session feeling lighter, clearer, and relieved — that something finally clicked. When I hear, “I never connected those dots before,” I know we’re getting somewhere meaningful.
My greatest strengths as a clinician are warmth, experience, and a sense of humor that keeps hard work human. I draw from years of advanced training but never take a one-size-fits-all approach.
Most of the people who find me are strong on paper and quietly exhausted in real life. They’ve built careers, families, and done amazing things while ignoring the knot in their chest that never really goes away. They’ve read the books, tried unsucsessfully to numb, or tried to think their way out of it — but something deeper still runs the show. I tend to work with people who are done pretending “fine” is good enough. They’re ready to stop spinning and start understanding what’s actually keeping them stuck. Some come from military or first responder or traumatic backgrounds where strength is mandatory but softness is foreign. Others are couples who still care about each other but can’t seem to stop circling the same arguments. Faith sometimes plays a role, too. Some of my clients want a space where they can bring both their faith and their questions without being preached at. If you value honesty, intelligence, and a little humor in the middle of hard work, we’ll probably get along. My clients don’t want endless coping tools or a pep talk. They want clarity, insight, and real change that holds up when life gets loud again.
EMDR is incredibly effective to treat the core of an upsetting or traumatic memory in a discreet way. I have practiced EMDR since 2017.