LPC, 12 years of experience
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in both Virginia and West Virginia. I received my Master's degree from Nova Southeastern University and my Bachelor's degree from WVU (Go Mountaineers!). I have been counseling for the past 12 years with various populations. My goal for you as your therapist is to empower, support, guide, and educate, using evidenced based tools and techniques to help you reach your goals and to uncover and discover your needs. For me, counseling is not a job, it's been a gift, I've developed through trainings and experience.
In our first session, I will be asking a lot of questions to get to know you better, and I also encourage you to ask me questions to get to know me. Counseling is a collaborative relationship, and the first session, helps me to understand what your needs are, so that we can begin to create a treatment plan to help you reach your goals in our future sessions together. If you have never been to counseling before, the first session, is very much like going to a doctor for the first time, and reviewing your history, issues, and concerns. The only thing comfortable about counseling is the chair you are sitting on. It takes a lot of courage and strength to confront your issues and willingness to make changes. I am here to support you every step of the way. My goal is to help you reach your goals! Our challenges in life provide the opportunity to strengthen and evolve ourselves.
Previous clients and colleagues will say that I am a great listener and will help you to feel validated and heard. I bring a lot of passion to my work to help you reach your goals. I will honor your pain and suffering. I will hold a space of nonjudgment to create safety for you. I will give compassion and empathetic understanding of your feelings, emotions, needs, and goals. I empower my clients and believe in your ability to heal, because that is what brought you to this website: you are wanting change in your life, and I am here to guide and honor your journey.
My dream clients are ready to start counseling, and I am ready to guide them through challenges, stuck points, uncertainty, discomfort, and suffering. For my clients with anxiety and depression, I psycho-educate, normalize symptoms, and provide evidenced tools to help you start feeling better. For my clients, struggling with either anger issues, I have a system developed to help you work through your feelings and emotions to develop effective tools. I have many tools to help guide women and men work through various life issues including: communication issues, chronic health issues, losses, addiction, marriage or divorce, parenting issues/stressors, and job/work stressors. I am an integrative therapist using various techniques from counseling modalities so I can meet you where you are at in your journey and process.
I use this treatment method in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy, internal family systems, and emotionally focused therapy to provide an integrative approach when working with negative core beliefs and automatic negative self-talk. These are all evidenced based techniques I use to help you develop more self-compassion and self-awareness.
I use this treatment method in combination with polyvagal therapy to teach you how to regulate your nervous system and increase mind-body awareness to experience the parasympathetic response including relaxation and calmness and to go from fight or flight and into rest and digest.
I use this treatment method in combination with solution focused therapy, psychoeducation, and narrative therapy to empower and support change. I like to work with your current strengths and abilities to create this foundation for change.