LCSW, 20 years of experience
Hi! I am a Licensed clinical social worker. I received my masters from the University of KY in 2009 and my doctorate from the University of Ky in 2022. I have been working in this field for almost twenty years and have worked in medical social work, addiction, intimate partner violence and mental health. My mental health experience began in crisis response, the inpatient psychiatric care, outpatient mental health and then directing a program for patients with severe mental illness. My specialty is complex trauma but I also help patients struggling with generalized anxiety, depression or life stressors.
In our first session, I'll let you know how I can help you and you will let me know what challenges you are facing. Together, we will decide on the right healing path to move you forward. This will include what treatment modality we will be using, how often we will need to meet and what outcomes you can expect from this therapy.
I have always been able to read people. Previous patients have told me that I am easy to talk to and a good listener. I will NEVER take over the session or talk about me. Therapy is about you and helping you find a healing path that leads to an improved quality of life. While I will always be kind, it is not my job to be your friend but to help guide you on this journey.
I love working with patients who want to work through the struggles of depression, anxiety or trauma. I want to take this journey to healing with my patients and know that it is hard. I love teaching patients the skills necessary to deal with the everyday reminders of unresolved trauma enabling patients to have an improved quality of life while working through the unresolved issues.
I have used EMDR in outpatient therapy for about four years and feel that this helps more patient heal. EMDR moves at the patients pace and every session looks different. EMDR treats a lot of dis-ease including complex trauma.
I have been helping patient write trauma narratives for over twelve years. Trauma narratives help patients process and move forward from past experiences through cognitive processing and healthy coping. This is a good therapy for patients with early life trauma but can be helpful for others as well.
Polyvagal work is important for any work to release stuck emotions and process through situations that were difficult for the brain to handle, any situation that continues to cause a physiological response to memories/reminders of the event.