a little about me...

If you've made it this far, you might be curious about the person behind the therapist.

I think it's important to share a little about who I am, especially because I tend to be fairly private about my personal life in the therapy room. Not because I don't want to share, but because I believe therapy should be a space focused on you and your experiences.

That being said, I also recognize that you might want to know a little more about the person you're trusting with your story.

So, here's a little of mine.

how I got here

I wouldn't say I had the easiest upbringing. My mother died when I was seven years old, and I grew up in an environment that lacked a lot of emotional security and validation. For much of my childhood and early adulthood, I struggled to understand my own feelings, trust my experiences, and feel secure in my relationships.

Those experiences affected me in a lot of different ways, many of which I didn't fully understand until much later.

My time in the military brought its own challenges and added to some of the mental health struggles I was already experiencing. After leaving the military, I began seeking mental health treatment for the first time in my life.

I spent four years in weekly therapy and participated in an extensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program. And honestly, those experiences were life-changing for me.

For the first time, I had a space where I could begin to understand myself, explore things I had never really had the opportunity to process, and learn how to navigate my emotions and relationships differently.

Building a secure and trusting relationship with my husband has also been a meaningful part of my life. Having the experience of truly trusting someone and feeling emotionally safe in a relationship changed how I understood connection in a lot of ways.

That's not to say I've figured everything out. I'm still learning, growing, and doing my own work, and I don't really believe there's some final destination where we're suddenly completely healed.

But those experiences have shaped a lot of how I understand people, relationships, and mental health.

finding my way into psychology

After leaving the military, I decided to go to college, which was honestly something I was pretty nervous about. I didn't have a lot of confidence in my own abilities at the time, but I challenged myself to go anyway and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

During my first semester, I took a psychology class and was fascinated. I loved learning about human behavior, how our minds work, and the different ways we experience the world. I took sociology classes as well, and the more I learned, the more interested I became.

I was actually planning to pursue nursing, but somewhere along the way, I realized psychology was what I really wanted to study.

College became a meaningful experience for me, not only because I discovered something I genuinely loved, but because I started developing confidence in myself and what I was capable of.

If you had asked me as a teenager or even in my early twenties whether I thought I'd ever earn a master's degree, I probably would have told you no.

And yet, here I am.

what matters to me as a therapist

I genuinely love getting to know people and hearing their stories. I think a lot of things can get in the way of us feeling understood, whether that's other people's perceptions, biases, or opinions. Being able to provide a space where someone can just be vulnerable, share their experiences, and feel heard is one of the most fulfilling parts of my work.

I also believe that emotional safety is about more than just being able to share difficult things. Sometimes we need time to build trust, understand our own responses, and feel ready to explore certain experiences, especially when it comes to trauma.

My approach tends to be conversational and exploratory. I ask a lot of questions, enjoy deeper discussions, and value building enough trust that we can challenge familiar patterns and consider different perspectives. I tend to prefer longer-term, exploratory work. I enjoy having the time to really get to know someone, understand their experiences, and see where our conversations take us.

outside of therapy

Outside of work, I have quite a few interests, although a lot of them involve reading, learning, or getting completely absorbed in something.

Anime and manga are a huge part of my life. I watch an almost unreasonable amount of anime and read manga pretty much every day. I also love books in general, particularly psychological fiction, thrillers, and some horror.

I'm also a bit of a book collector. I'm especially interested in older, unusual, and sometimes controversial books about psychology, philosophy, religion, and sexuality. I'm currently building a library in my office, which has been a pretty exciting project for me.

Traveling is another one of my favorite things. I love experiencing different cultures, learning about their histories, hearing different stories, and seeing how people live in different parts of the world.

And I love museums. Art museums, history museums, science museums, pretty much any kind of museum. I could spend hours wandering around learning about things I didn't know before. Unfortunately, finding people who want to spend that much time in a museum with me isn't always easy.

I'd describe myself as someone who's a little more reserved when meeting new people, but I really enjoy meaningful conversations and exploring different perspectives. I tend to be pretty flexible and go with the flow, although I have my own opinions and ways of seeing the world, too.

a little about my professional background

I earned my Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Adams State University and am a Professional Counselor Associate in Oregon.

My clinical interests include trauma, attachment, identity, anxiety, depression, relationship dynamics, and understanding how our experiences influence the way we see ourselves and connect with others.

My approach draws from different therapeutic perspectives, including trauma-informed and exploratory approaches, and I continue to pursue training and education to deepen my understanding of the work.

I take my responsibility as a therapist seriously, and I don't think learning ends when you finish graduate school. There's always more to understand, more to question, and more to learn from the people we work with.

before you go...

I know finding a therapist can be a pretty personal process. You're essentially looking for someone you feel comfortable sharing parts of your life with, sometimes parts you haven't even fully made sense of yourself.

I don't expect that my approach will be the right fit for everyone, and I think that's okay. But if something about what you've read resonates with you, I'd be happy to connect and see whether working together might be a good fit.