(she/her)
New to Grow
In therapy, we will work together to find the path to help you to start feeling calm. I will help you explore ways to help you stabilize your emotions, and build healthy relationships. You will be assisted in developing confidence in your decisions and trusting yourself again. My main goal is to help you not feel alone in this process anymore and provide you with an advocate to bring out your inner strength.
When you walk into my office for your first appointment, I will great you warmly. I strive to make my office welcoming and a safe place for my clients. This is a place for people to be open emotionally and be vulnerable about their struggles, so I will approach you gently and follow a pace that is not overwhelming. Entering therapy after experiencing trauma and feeling overwhelmed is a courageous decision. I will honor this choice by respecting your decisions, providing you a place to feel comforted, and supporting you through this journey. My goal is to help you not feel alone as you process through your past experiences and emotions. In our first session, I will ask you some questions about your past to help me understand how your past is affecting you currently and to support you more effectively. Again, I will ask these questions at a pace that is not too overwhelming for you. As we continue to meet, I will follow you on this journey to discover the best way for you to heal and feel safe from the trauma you experienced. I will assist you in adding skills to your tool box to help you cope with intense emotions and thoughts. Most importantly, we will work together to discover the best way to bring out your healthy identity that has been locked away. Remember, you are no longer alone. I am here to go through this difficult time with you to help you find your inner hope.
I first learned that I wanted to help individuals going through PTSD and trauma when I was getting my bachelor’s degree in psychology from Colorado Christian University. At the time, I was interning at a local domestic violence shelter and learned quickly how common domestic violence and trauma happens in our society. This put a fire in my heart that I needed to help and do more. I continued to work in various shelters for abused victims in Colorado for six years. During this time, I realized that being an advocate wasn’t enough to help victims of abuse and trauma, so I decided that I should return to school to become a counselor. In 2016, I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a master’s degree in counseling. From there, I have provided counseling to victims of abuse at a domestic violence shelter. I believe shelters are a necessary resource, but also limiting in how they can help therapeutically. Shelters are equipped to help with the immediate crisis of the abuse, but not deal with the ongoing trauma that results from it. This is when I decided that I wanted to start a private practice, so I could help my clients in a deeper way. From there I have expanded my work from just domestic violence to a others forms of trauma that can occur in your society. I now provide therapy that will help my clients process through their trauma and develop skills to help them heal. I use EMDR to treat PTSD, so I can be a more affective therapist. When I am not in the therapy room, I spend most of my time with my husband and kids. As a family, we love to make time to play board games and invite others to join us.
I work with clients who may be struggling with depression or trauma related to their relationships or family. Since trauma can affect anyone at any age I leave myself open to work with anyone from any walks of life. I work with client's with varying levels of trauma as I know that trauma can affect everyone differently. In my practice I strive to make sure the space we meet is safe and I collaborate with you to insure you are not becoming overwhelmed with the process.
EMDR
I use EMDR to help my clients who have a history of trauma and are struggling to cope with the past trauma memories and triggers in their current day. I find that EMDR is helpful way to process through these types of memories and triggers in a less overwhelming way. If EMDR is something you want to try, I always make sure my clients fully understand the process and feel prepared to process through their trauma.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS therapy is another type of therapy that helps me work with clients who have a history of trauma that is affected their day to day. This type of therapy helps me and my clients to organize their thoughts and memories so when working through the trauma is less overwhelming. This type of therapy helps people to sperate the different parts of self that have experience the trauma and the ones that want to focus on the precent moment. I find this type of therapy helps people build more empathy towards themselves to promote an easier healing process with trauma.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
I find that mindfulness-based therapy is extremely helpful for clients to cope with their emotions. I use this type of therapy to help clients build healthy habits and healthy coping skills.
Sandplay
I use sandyplay with my adult clients because I find that looking at your internal struggles in a third person perspective can be useful tool to process through difficult situations. Sometimes when people think too much and are stuck in their own minds they can be more critical towards themselves. Seeing these struggles in front of you can help you gain a more understanding perspective.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
A lot of the time we have negative self talk that can affect the way we feel and interact with others. With CBT therapy it helps me teach my clients ways to help them reframe their thinking so they are able to feel and interact with others in a healthier and more regulated way.