Hi, I’m Robin, a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor and trauma therapist who believes therapy should feel like a real conversation with a real person. I specialize in working with trauma and complex PTSD, anxiety, emotional regulation, relationship and boundary concerns, first responders, and high-functioning adults who are used to carrying a lot for everyone around them. My approach to therapy is warm, straightforward, and collaborative. I’m not the kind of therapist who simply sits back, nods, and asks, “How does that make you feel?” I want to help you understand why you feel the way you do, recognize the patterns that keep showing up in your life, and develop tools to actually change them. I believe understanding the connection between your experiences, relationships, emotions, and nervous system can be incredibly powerful. As a trauma-informed therapist, I incorporate approaches such as EMDR and other evidence-based interventions based on each client's individual needs. I also believe therapy doesn't always have to feel clinical. Sometimes healing involves difficult conversations and deep work; sometimes it involves humor, honesty, and finally being able to say the thing you've never felt comfortable saying out loud. Many of my clients are incredibly capable people. They are professionals, parents, helpers, first responders, caregivers, and people others depend on. From the outside, they may appear strong and successful while privately dealing with anxiety, unresolved trauma, burnout, difficult relationships, or feeling emotionally exhausted from constantly being the strong one. My goal isn't to change who you are. It's to help you better understand yourself, heal what continues to hurt, regulate your emotions, establish healthier boundaries, and build relationships and a life that feel more authentic and sustainable. You don't have to spend the rest of your life operating in survival mode.
Your first session is really about getting to know each other and figuring out what you need from therapy. We’ll talk about what brought you in, what’s been going on recently, and any experiences or patterns you feel are important for me to understand. I’ll also ask some questions about your history, relationships, symptoms, and goals so we can begin putting the pieces together. You do not have to tell me your entire life story in the first session, and you will never be expected to share details of traumatic experiences before you’re ready. Trauma therapy isn’t about opening every painful box at once. We’ll work at a pace that feels manageable while building the skills and support you need along the way. You can also expect me to be an active participant in the conversation. I’ll ask questions, offer observations, explain what I’m noticing, and help you begin understanding why certain patterns or reactions may be showing up in your life. Therapy with me is collaborative, you’re the expert on your experiences, and my job is to help you make sense of them and determine where we go from here. Most importantly, the first session gives both of us an opportunity to see whether we’re a good fit. You don’t need to prepare anything, know exactly what your goals are, or have the “right” words to explain what’s happening. You can simply show up as you are, and we’ll start there.
My approach stands out because I believe therapy should be both deeply compassionate and genuinely useful. I don’t just want to help you talk about what happened; I want to help you understand why it still affects you and what we can do about it. I take an active, collaborative approach to therapy. That means I’ll ask questions, offer feedback, point out patterns, teach you what may be happening in your brain and nervous system, and help you connect experiences from your past with the ways you think, feel, and respond today. My work is trauma-informed and incorporates specialized approaches such as EMDR, but I don’t believe therapy should ever feel like a one-size-fits-all treatment plan. I also bring my personality into the therapy room. We can have difficult, honest conversations without everything feeling clinical or sterile. There is room for humor, curiosity, frustration, and the occasional uncomfortable truth. I’ll meet you with compassion, but I’ll also challenge you when it can help you grow. Most importantly, I understand that many people seeking therapy have already become very good at surviving. My goal isn’t to take away the strength and coping strategies that got you this far. It’s to help you understand them, decide which ones you still need, and develop new ways of navigating life that don’t require you to constantly operate in survival mode. Therapy with me is about more than symptom management. It’s about understanding yourself well enough to create meaningful, lasting change.
My ideal client is someone who looks like they have it all together on the outside but feels overwhelmed, exhausted, or stuck on the inside. They may be successful, dependable, and the person everyone else turns to, yet struggle to extend that same care and compassion to themselves. Often, they have spent years surviving difficult experiences, complicated relationships, chronic stress, or trauma without realizing how deeply those experiences continue to affect them. I especially enjoy working with adults who have experienced trauma or complex PTSD, first responders and others in high-stress roles, and people struggling with boundaries, relationships, anxiety, or emotional regulation. Many of my clients have become incredibly good at functioning in survival mode. They push through, stay busy, take care of everyone else, and keep moving—even when their nervous system is telling them they are overwhelmed. You may find yourself overthinking conversations, feeling responsible for other people's emotions, struggling to say no, shutting down during conflict, becoming easily overwhelmed, or wondering why situations from your past still affect you when you feel like you "should be over it by now." You might understand your patterns intellectually but still struggle to change how you feel or respond. Therapy can be a place where you don't have to perform, hold everything together, or have the right answers. Together, we can work toward understanding how your experiences shaped the way you respond to stress, relationships, and emotions while developing healthier ways to cope and connect. My goal is to help you move beyond simply surviving. Healing doesn't mean erasing what happened to you. It means helping your past have less control over your present, learning to regulate your emotions without being ruled by them, establishing healthier boundaries, and building a life that feels more peaceful, connected, and genuinely yours.
Cash - $175 per session
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UnitedHealthcare/Optum - Medicare
I use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) in my practice because sometimes understanding what happened isn’t enough to change how your brain and body respond to it. You can know that you’re safe, know that something wasn’t your fault, or understand exactly where a pattern came from—and still find yourself reacting as though the past is happening right now. EMDR is an evidence-based approach that helps the brain process experiences that may have become “stuck.” Rather than simply talking through the same painful memories over and over, EMDR helps us work with the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and physical responses connected to those experiences so they can be processed in a healthier way. I especially appreciate EMDR because trauma isn’t always one obvious, catastrophic event. Sometimes it’s years of instability, rejection, criticism, unhealthy relationships, feeling unsafe, or having to become strong long before you should have needed to be. Those experiences can shape the beliefs we develop about ourselves and the ways we respond to relationships, conflict, stress, and vulnerability. EMDR also fits my collaborative approach to therapy. You remain in control of the process, and we don’t jump straight into the most difficult experiences. We spend time understanding your history, developing resources, and making sure you have the tools to regulate yourself before beginning deeper trauma processing. The goal isn’t to erase your memories or convince you that what happened didn’t matter. You’ll still remember your experiences. The difference is that those memories can begin to feel like something that happened in the past rather than something your nervous system has to keep reliving in the present.
I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in my practice because the way we think, feel, and behave are deeply connected. Our experiences, especially trauma, chronic stress, and difficult relationships can shape the beliefs we develop about ourselves, other people, and the world around us. Over time, those beliefs can become automatic, influencing how we interpret situations and respond to them without us even realizing it. CBT helps us slow that process down and get curious about what is actually happening. Together, we may identify patterns such as catastrophizing, assuming responsibility for other people's emotions, expecting rejection, engaging in all-or-nothing thinking, or automatically believing the worst-case scenario. Rather than simply telling you to “think positively,” we examine whether those thoughts are accurate, helpful, or rooted in experiences that may no longer reflect your current reality. I also use CBT to help clients understand the connection between their thoughts and behaviors. Sometimes the things we do to reduce anxiety in the moment—avoiding conflict, seeking reassurance, people-pleasing, overthinking, shutting down, or trying to control every possible outcome—actually reinforce the cycle that keeps us feeling anxious or stuck. My approach to CBT is practical, collaborative, and trauma-informed. I don't believe every uncomfortable thought needs to be challenged or that every emotional response is irrational. Sometimes your brain learned a pattern for a very good reason. The goal is to recognize when an old pattern is running the show, understand where it came from, and decide whether it still serves you. CBT gives us concrete tools to challenge unhelpful patterns, experiment with healthier responses, and create changes that extend beyond the therapy session and into your everyday life.
I use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills in my practice because understanding why you feel something doesn’t always tell you what to do when that emotion shows up. Sometimes you need practical tools for getting through a difficult moment without making the situation (or your own emotional state) worse. DBT is built around the idea that two things can be true at the same time: your feelings and experiences can be completely valid, and there may also be things you need to change. I love this balance because therapy shouldn’t be about judging yourself for how you learned to survive. It should help you understand those responses while giving you healthier options moving forward. I incorporate DBT skills to help clients with emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. In everyday language, that means learning how to recognize what you’re feeling, calm your nervous system when emotions become overwhelming, tolerate discomfort without immediately reacting to it, communicate more effectively, and establish boundaries without being consumed by guilt. This can be especially helpful for clients who become overwhelmed during conflict, shut down, react impulsively, struggle to say no, people-please, or feel responsible for managing everyone else's emotions. We may work on slowing down the space between feeling something and responding to it so you have more control over what happens next. My use of DBT is practical and individualized. We aren't just learning skills from a worksheet; we're figuring out how to apply them to your actual relationships, triggers, and everyday life. The goal isn't to make you less emotional. Emotions give us important information. The goal is to help you experience emotions without automatically being controlled by them. Over time, DBT skills can help you feel more confident navigating difficult emotions, communicating your needs, maintaining boundaries, and responding intentionally instead of simply reacting.