My Approach to Helping
At times, we all get overwhelmed or find situations and emotions difficult to manage. It is important to remember you do not have to go through it alone and that there are tools to help you through life's stressors and challenges. I am here to help you find those tools and strategies for coping and even thriving in difficult times. I have always been motivated to help because people do typically feel better with counseling, therapy, and some objective guidance. People do get better. You can feel better. I enjoy working with clients who are dealing with what I call the 'cold and flu' of mental health: depression and anxiety, among other areas such as ADHD, substance abuse, and trauma. I am not a specialist in LGBTIQA+ related issues, but I do have some experience and am very understanding and accepting. Clients who are motivated, insightful, and willing to do work outside of sessions typically thrive while in treatment with me. And if some of those are difficult for you, we will find solutions together. We can deal with that together in helpful and healthier ways as well. I am a bit unusual in that I utilize some humor throughout treatment as I believe it helps provide new perspectives to ongoing or old stressors. My approach is largely client-focused and supportive cognitive behavioral therapy. I aim for you to feel comfortable, understood, trusting, and hopeful of positive change when working with me in therapy. My original interest in psychology was research. I quickly found that I much prefer working with people and their mental health issues. Right after college, I was fortunate enough to work at a group home for emotionally disturbed adolescents and witness some truly amazing improvements and improved sense of well-being among adolescents who had often endured abuse, neglect, and other traumas. Those counselors inspired me, so I went back to graduate school and became a licensed professional counselor way back in 1999. I became independently licensed in 2001. Since then, I have closely worked with older adolescents and young adults, victims of domestic violence, people with addictions, people with trauma, and certainly people with anxiety and depression. Although there is often hard work involved in therapy, the payoff and benefits I have seen over the years continue to inspire me to work in this field. Again, what keeps me in this field is seeing people get better, feel better, and have more hope for the future. It may take a bit of time, but people do get better and often much faster with the help of therapy. Together we can ease some of your pain and suffering from trauma, addiction, depression, anxiety, loss, and difficult life transitions.