Get to know me

In our first session together, here's what you can expect

In our first session I'll want prompted you to "pick up the phone" and ask for help! A bit about what you have appreciated about previous experiences in therapy--and also what you did not find helpful. Of course I'll be open to any questions you have for me. I'll be curious about what you have tried in the past to help you with your "presenting problem" and explore that with you. It is so important that we both feel a connection of sorts so you are increasingly able to heal and have more access to your authenticity (power, presence, calm aliveness, groundedness and self-love).

The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions

What stands out in my therapeutic approach is I share my own experience when it may provide hope, normalize your feeling (thereby reducing shame) and learn from a therapist that has been on her own healing journey for the last 38 years along with being a seasoned psychotherpist for close to 30 years. I have extensive resources to fuel your journey. My work has inspired me to be my best self. And to provide excellent service to you, continuing education from the best in the field is constantly a source of inspiration and mastery in our work together. I love being a psychotherapist. I have many longterm patients, some of whom I've worked with weekly or bi-weekly, and others that come back when they are inspired to do another level of work. Some have called this the layers of the onion (tears implied); while others have referred to this as an artichoke--plucking the leaves to slowly but surely--get to the meaty heart! I am an empath: someone who is highly sensitive and can experience the emotions, feelings, and even physical symptoms of others as if they were their own. This is very useful to both us in our work together. Sometimes people come to therapy and have numbed out and so don't have access to the range of their own feelings. When doing EMDR or IFS practices it is helpful for me to know how you are feeling--and this guides the work. Sometimes emotions have become toxic from the habitual practice of stuffing emotions because of their toxicity. I use being an empath so you feel seen, heard, felt and respected. I've been doing this work long enough that I am able to release this after our visit and connect back to myself. I am grateful to be a masterful clinician working with an amalgam of resources compiled and integrated over the years. Without this experience empaths can be exhausted and burdened by this. Now, I am able to use this in my work with you. Toxic emotions can fuel a diatribe of judgement, self loathing, catastrophizing, ETC! Thank goodness early on I coined the phrase for myself that my feelings are like little children who need my care and attention. A well known phrase in my work is, "You have to feel it to heal it!" I didn't have to do this alone, and neither will you. One of my favorite therapists close to 40 years ago said to me that I was one of the most defended patients he ever had! I am so grateful to be fully present today with an open heart and a passion for life and sharing my experience, strenght and hope w

The clients I'm best positioned to serve

The people I am best positioned to serve are "surrendered". What this means to me is embodied here: H.O.W (Honest, Openminded and Willing). Helpful if you are working an outside program. Helpful if you are willing to explore the possibilities of this with me. Therapy and working an outside program can be like working with jet fuel. I facilitated a group for 24 years with people who had 60 days clean and sober and I handed out periodically to all as well as new patients when they started a questionnaire that identified whether they had grown up in a dysfunctional family and only one person didn't qualify! That gave me a handle from which to work that provided for my people fertile ground for healing outside of the clinical hour, which in my mind, we all need. You are open to exploring new things to heal. After building a sense of trust, I have been practicing EMDR for close to 20 years and this has been so helpful to so many. The willingness to put yourself first in your life and develop a daily practice to heal is essential. There are many ways to do this: prayer, meditation, exercise, journaling, spending time in nature, developing a healthy diet that nourishes your body and so much more. Most people with a history of childhood trauma--have traumatized in many other ways in their adult lives. Ask me how I know! Both from my own experience along with my work with many of you. Stopping this and developing a consciousness that Louise Hays calls, "Life loves you!", prevents the litany of self criticism and ceaseless judgement of self and others from penetrating our soul. And finally, I meet your where you are at! When a dear friend sent me the book, "How to Heal your Life" by Louise Hays many years ago, I received it like a criticism and threw it across the room where it slid under the couch. A year later when I was sick and tired of being sick and tired I realized I needed to heal my life and pulled the book out. I'm so grateful today for that level of willingness!

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