the who.
I am an associate mental health counselor with a Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling from Boston College and Bachelor of Arts from Western Washington University in both psychology and political science, with an emphasis in American social movements.
As a provider coming to individual psychotherapy following years of clinical work in community and institutional settings, I have had the privilege of working alongside a wide array of individuals. While much of my experience has been with dispossessed youth and women, my most recent work has involved listening to men without housing, supervising and operating a day center and case management program as part of entry services with the Downtown Emergency Service Center. I have sat with rightfully angry freshmen in a high school in Boston, organized supportive community with recovering mothers in Tacoma, and held trauma with senior veterans downtown. This work has brought me to the round table with both individuals and families. My multi-faceted professional experiences have taught me much about the power of healing via therapeutic relationship, and most shiningly, the beauty of human resilience.
professional experience & orientation
Provided the spectrum of individuals with whom I have worked and my previous research efforts, my approach has become a constellation of theoretical orientations. I believe firmly in strengths-based counseling, as we know mental health symptomology, disturbances, or addiction of all kinds are nothing but survival skills, however maladaptive. Inherently, working together to identify and address paths to personal peace requires commitment to authenticity and personal awareness; healing is your process. I am only a facilitator of your self-knowledge.
Drawing from relational psychodynamics and what research continues to enlighten for us regarding attachment and the integral importance of human connection, I lean on the power of the therapeutic relationship and what it can illuminate regarding previously learned patterns of relating throughout our work together. Unaddressed trauma – interpersonal, institutional, racial, etc., - has been the underlying current throughout my career to date, and I come to individual psychotherapy with a reverence for mindfulness and the power of its practice to retrain the brain’s most reactive pathways. Holding the present with you during session will build mutual trust and invite space for holding and healing the deepest pains and shame we construct so much of our lives to avoid. Simultaneously, acknowledging and exploring the contextual realities of day to day life is crucial. Relational Cultural Theory and Liberation Psychology continue to inform my practice; one’s intersectionality in broader society and connections to community are central to an individual’s emotional experience.
approach to mental health
I am here to listen, learn, and reflect. I am here to accept and empower you in your own journey, and to hold an honest and safe space with you on a consistent basis. A therapist, at best, is reliably open arms and a gentle mirror; both affirmation and accountability are necessary tools. I will hold the possibility for your recovery, your healing, and the achievement of your goals alongside you as you reach for further agency in your own life.
It is brave to choose change. To believe in your own better. I commend you for your research, and look forward to working with you.
