Hi! I’ve been working in the mental health field since 2006 - first with children and their families as a Professional School Counselor, as a community mental health professional, in college counseling centers, and in private practice. My work is trauma-informed, affirming of and welcoming to all.

I am a white, cishet woman, married to a man and have three children, two dogs, one cat, and the occasional hermit crab or fish. When I’m not working, I can be found singing karaoke, knitting, and driving my kids around.

About my psychotherapy & mindfulness meditation training…

I’m an integrative clinician and practice in a way that prioritizes emotions. I approach our time together with the desire to connect with you and help you have a new and safe experience with emotion. I often consider myself more of an emotion coach than anything else.

Emotions are not good or bad, they just are - but that’s not something most of us have learned - instead we brace against them or tuck them away - but they always find their way to the surface. They just might look a little different - chronic pain, migraine, stress, anger, disconnection, depression, are just some of the ways unprocessed emotions can manifest.

As an AEDP clinician, I help us create safety to allow your emotions to be felt and expressed, together. We’ll quickly get to what’s bothering you, addressing your most pressing concerns first, and you’ll learn strategies to enable you to have some relief. As you feel better, emotions are uncovered, acknowledged, and felt. I am interested in developing our relationship, which provides a grounded place to explore your concerns together in a respectful and collaborative way. I value your time, and am committed to working with intentional focus, understanding that you probably don’t want to be “in therapy” forever.

I’ve studied lots of approaches (they all seem to have acronyms - CBT, DBT, ACT - to name a few) and AEDP is the best way I know how to help you make lasting change. It is an evidenced-based therapy designed to change your physiology, not just give you techniques to manage your symptoms. Of course you’ll learn skills along the way, but with AEDP we’re working on “from the ground up” change rather than treading water.

Mindfulness meditation plays a vital role in the therapeutic process. As a practice for me, it allows me to track your emotional waves, moment-to-moment, and remain attuned to you. As a practice for you, learning how to be in the moment and with whatever arises privileges your truest experience and enables you to release long-held emotion. It also dramatically reduces anxiety and improves mood.

Courses and training experiences…

AEDP Institute - Diana Fosha, PhD; Jennifer Edlin, MFT; Ronald J Frederick, PhD; Kari Gleiser, PhD; Kate Halliday, LCSW; Jerry Lamagna, LCSW; Benjamin Lipton, LCSW; Ben Medley, LCSW; Jeanne Newhouse, NCPsyA; Karen Pando-Mars, MFT; Natasha Prenn, LCSW; Eileen M. Russell, PhD; SueAnne Piliero, PhD; Steve Shapiro, PhD; Molly Eldridge, LICSW; Liza Greville, LCSW
Undoing Disempowerment: Cultivating Agency in AEDP - Eileen Russell, PhD
AEDP Essential Skills 1: Module 4 - The Processing of Core Affective Experience - Karen Pando-Mars, MFT (Experiential Assistant)
“HOT” Topics in AEDP - Diana Fosha, PhD, Kari Gleiser, PhD, Ben Medley, LCSW with Molly Eldridge, LICSW
Navigating AEDP’s Experiential-Attachment Work in the Context of Trauma, Dissociation and Multiplicity - Kari Gleiser, PhD
The Therapist as Organizing Other: Regulating and building self-structure in dysregulated clients through an AEDP lens - Jennifer Edlin, MFT
Healing Relational Trauma: Sensitivity and Blind Spots Across Patterns of Attachment - Karen Pando-Mars, MFT
Fine-tuning AEDP Experiential Interventions in Interpersonal and Intrapsychic Contexts: Growing your AEDP Edges as You Help Your Client’s Grow Theirs - Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
AEDP Essential Skills 1 - Jerry Lamagna, LCSW; Kate Halliday, LCSW; Ben Medley, LCSW; Ronald J Frederick, PhD
Transforming Resistance - Steve Shapiro, PhD
AEDP: Immersion Course - Diana Fosha, PhD
EMDR: EMDR Basic Training - Barb Maiberger, LPC, Maiberger Institute
EMDR: EMDR Intensives - Kelly Smyth-Dent, LCSW & Sadie Smith, LMFT, Scaling Up
Enneagram: Certified Enneagram Applications Professional Training - - Lynda Roberts & Nan Henson, Enneagram Georgia
Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, Health & Wellbeing Course (100 hours) - Julian Daizan Skinner, Zenways
Mindfulness Meditation: Teacher Training, Insight & Spirituality Course (100 hours) - Julian Daizan Skinner, Zenways
Breakthrough to Zen Retreat - Julian Daizan Skinner, Zenways