Over the past fifteen years as a licensed professional counselor, I have developed extensive professional experience working with adults, couples and adolescents in therapy. I am deeply committed to providing effective treatment to individuals and couples regardless of race, ethnicity, spiritual/religious identification, gender identity, age or sexual orientation. I continue to pursue ongoing post-graduate training on topics related to cultural competency.
I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist, meaning I was trained within the psychoanalytic tradition, specifically learning from the Relational branch of this practice and theory. I continue to seek out training and supervision with psychoanalytic mentors and supervisors, and recently completed a year long psychoanalytic. training program in couples therapy.
A specialty in my practice is working with individuals seeking healing from past trauma. This could be childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, combat, loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship. Sometimes, this means the trauma of growing up in a highly dysfunctional or narcissistic family system, or the trauma of early attachment disruption (through adoption, divorce or early loss of a parent).
I have completed Level II training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), an evidence-based trauma therapy. I often utilize EMDR with clients wanting to address specific traumatic memories or paralyzing/overwhelming fears.
Education: I graduated with a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology in 2010 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Trinity Western University in 2006. I received a certificate in Psychoanalytic Couples Therapy from ICSW in 2025. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado (#0013123) and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Washington (#LH60336410).
I am a member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis (IARPP) and EMDRIA (www.emdria.org) and am deeply committed to my continued education in the field.
#0013123, CO
#LH60336410, WA
I approach therapy from a strengths-based perspective, meaning that I believe strongly in your inner resiliency, however weakened or non-existent it may seem to be when you first reach out to a therapist. I view therapy as a space to get more in touch with and grow the capacities for interpersonal relating, emotional regulation, adaptive coping, and the ability to love. In therapy, we explore which coping skills and defenses are working for you, and which ones are causing more harm or pain than good.
Our earliest relationships impacted how we love and allow ourselves to be loved into adulthood. Understanding how the past impacted your current style of relating and sense of identity is often a part of therapy. The therapy relationship itself also is often a conduit for understanding
I believe that, as physician Bessel van der Kolk says, "the body keeps the score." Meaning, our bodies hold our traumatic memories, our stress and fear. Our emotional health is directly tied to how in tune we are with our body. Emotions and feelings states are physical experiences, and in therapy I encourage clients to become attuned to what their body is telling them.
My work is heavily influenced by attachment theory, object relations theory and the braoder psychoanalytic. tradition. I believe none of us are of one mind: our psyche is a house divided and to be ambivalent (having mixed/contradictory feelings) is a part of the human condition. We are not conscious of all our motives, and part of the therapy process involves learning. to listen closely to what is beneath the surface