I believe that people need to feel safe and comfortable to heal and make changes happen.  When we are safe, then we can work on being happy.  Putting on a happy face can be great when we’re studying for finals, finishing off our quarterly financial reports, or waiting for approval on a project we’ve worked on.  But when we struggle to make life work, a traumatic event occurs, we feel overwhelmed in our parenting, or we experience a lack of safety in our closest relationships, we often start to find ourselves wrestling with finding a way to happiness and lose sight of the need to feel safe.  My approach is grounded in emotional safety where individuals, couples, and families can work through their difficulties and find a path to what makes them happy.  As I often remind myself and my clients, “we do safety first, then happy, not the other way around.”

I understand deeply what it means to feel paralyzing shame and to live in fear, anxiety, and stress each day.  I understand how difficult it can be when the tools to manage life seem to stop working or don’t exist at all. Using a Solution-Focused, Compassion-Centered, Trauma-Informed approach, I engage clients in the work of clarifying their problems and needs and building on their strengths to find a path towards solutions.  We will collaborate to set goals that will help you create the change that you want to see.  I believe that everyone is unique and a treatment approach must be fitted to the specific problem, person, and situation. This may require only a few sessions or it may take more depending on a client’s level of need.  Whatever the need, I come alongside clients to help create the new path that they are seeking, a path of healing, restoration, and living life to the full.