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?

YOU are the boss of your treatment. I am here to help you get to where you want to be in life by accomplishing your mental health goals to help you live according to what you value most. Of course, I will make my professional recommendations and through a collaborative process you will make the final decision as to how you want to move forward and progress in treatment. After the first session, I find it important to spend some time focusing on education of the the mental illness we are targeting and it's treatment because that understanding makes treatment more effective. Since everyone is different no treatment plan looks the same and several factors are taken into account when formulating a plan to move forward.

What treatment methods and tools do you utilize?

Specifically, I have extensive training in Cognitive-Behavioral therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT), and Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP). Last year, I completed a certification in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) to be able to better assist my clients with anxiety symptoms as a result of past trauma. Depending on my clients goals and needs, we develop a unique combination of techniques from the previous evidence based treatments to create a plan. I place a strong emphasis on self compassion & mindfulness techniques when working with most if not all of my clients because of the many benefits research has shown they have on individuals with anxiety related disorders.

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.