Hi there! I am a licensed professional counselor who specializes in obsessive compulsive disorder, other anxiety related disorders, PTSD, and body focused repetitive behaviors. As someone who also battles with mental health illnesses, I understand how debilitating they can be which fuels my passion to help individuals progress from surviving to thriving. My main goal in life is to increase mental health accessibility for underrepresented minority populations and to decrease the stigma in those populations. I see going to therapy the same as going to your PCP for your annual check up. One quote that resonates with me is “I think it’s really important to take the stigma away from mental health… My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don’t know why I wouldn’t seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth?” from Kerry Washington and I agree with her wholeheartedly. I'm also a die-hard Dallas cowboys fan, but please don't hold that against me.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
The first session is a time for us to get to know each other; not just me to interrogate you. First, there will be logistics and paperwork that I need to go over before anything else. Then, my hope is that I learn more about you as a person and what your seeking therapy for as well as you learn more about me and hopefully how I can help. If we both agree that the therapeutic relationship is a good fit then we can move forward with scheduling future sessions. If not, no worries, not every therapeutic match is meant to be and if interested I would love to provide som referrals that you could check out instead.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
Previous clients have told me that they appreciate my ability to give them a gentle nudge in their treatment when they are having difficulties pushing past something tough in order to move forward as well as assisting clients in coming up with creative exposure ideas. I pride myself on meeting my clients where they are at instead of uniformity in my approach because everyone is different and those differences deserve to be accounted for in a healing journey. Similarly, some clients need more support than your typical weekly or biweekly session but they are not quite at the point where they need a residential level of treatment either. One of my strengths are working to accommodate those session needs in addition to any other treatment needs.