My Approach to Helping
My approach to working with adolescents, adults, couples, and families is centered on the idea that we are experiencing components of our personal story each and every day. When we conclude a chapter, it can impact the next chapter. By understanding our experiences and crafting our next steps, we can shape our story.
I seek clients who are open to the discovery of their story and how it led them to their current circumstance. I am best able to nurture a relationship with a client that is aware of their reason for seeking support, and who is comfortable with a direct approach to realizing their goals. I have considerable experience working with adolescents and families with a wide range of circumstances, mental health concerns, and supporting those who were in crisis. Additionally, my experience extends to working with adults coping with a life transition, relationships, and mental health issues.
Additionally, I work with clients seeking support in their healing journey as survivors of abuse and other traumas. Also, I appreciate the complex circumstances in working with men and women impacted by domestic violence. My professional experiences in law enforcement and child welfare provides a unique perspective in supporting veterans, medical, public safety, child welfare, and other professionals who are susceptible to experiencing personal, relational, and professional disruption due to post-traumatic stress, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout.
More Info About My Practice
As an adoptee, I provide a personal perspective in my supportive work with child, adolescent, and adult adoptees, their families, and birth parents who are experiencing the unique adjustments encountered in the social and family environment.
How My Own Struggles Made Me a Better Therapist
My own personal story is a story that produced someone with the scars necessary to have a credible supportive relationship with a variety of clients. That story, the one that ends happily, is built on a foundation of faith, humility, difficult experiences, professional support, and often painful reflection that perpetually supports my clinical perspective. Our stories are the foundation on which we make decisions, choose partners and friends, parent our children, and establish our goals. We can chose to end a chapter and remain with an unfinished narrative, or we can seek the relationships necessary to begin crafting the words, paragraphs, and themes that result in the next chapter.
Why Going to Therapy Does Not Mean You are Weak or Flawed
Today more than ever, we define success by the "what" that makes us successful rather than the "how" we are successful. Those that recognize the journey necessary to realize personal and emotional success are often those that also recognize that their brokenness includes a tremendously courageous story of conquering shame, guilt, and extraordinarily difficult circumstances. It is really difficult work, and often takes more time than anyone could imagine. However, the bravery a person models by being vulnerable and the credibility yielded by their emotional and physical scars creates one of the most desirable traits anyone can have... resiliency. Those that recognize their need for support, learning, crafting, and understanding consistently demonstrate the strength necessary to sustain perseverance in many facets of their lives.