About Me

 

 

Background

I have worked in schools, domestic violence shelters, residential facilities, child welfare, and community mental healthsettings helping kids and families manage concerns such as anxiety, depression, body image, self-esteem, trauma, grief/loss, and school issues since 2006.

​

Qualifications

Master's in Social Work, Boston College, 2011

Licensed in Oregon #L7416 since 2017

​

Additional Certifications: 

• Therapeutic Lifestory Work Certificate with Richard Rose, ORPARC 2019

• Adoptive and Foster Family Certificate Program, Portland State University 2018

 

Mission

I aim to support the positive expansion of young people's emerging identities by providing trauma-informed services to children, youth and families that give them tools to

• develop relational, communication and self-care skills

• get to know their own voice, strength and capacity

• learn to intentionally cultivate and tap into their inner and outer resources

 

Services

• Individual counseling to children, pre-teens teens and young adults

  • learning to manage stress, depression and anxiety

  • adjustment and school transitions

  • trauma stemming from adoption, separation, attachment wounds

  • body image, self-acceptance, self-care and wellness, healthy relationships

• Family counseling​

  • stress arising from family conflict and transitions

  • families already in the foster care system or seeking to foster or adopt a child

  • improving communication and understanding​

  • coping skills as well as safe and healthy ways to deal with anger

• Groups for elementary school age, teen, and pre-teen kids that are designed to​

  • facilitate experiences of understanding and mutual support​

  • foster acceptance and belonging

  • increase capacity for focused attention

  • teach and offer opportunities to practice relationship and problem solving skills

​

Approach

My approach is fundamentally compassionate, strengths-based, humanistic, and client-centered.

 

I use expressive arts, play therapy, and sand tray as well as attachment, cognitive-behavioral, and motivational methods.

​

While I believe the benefits of using those traditional therapies to learn to regulate one's thoughts and emotions are clear, I also recognize that we humans aren't closed systems. We exist, not only in between our own two ears, but also within the context of our interconnections -- with other individuals, our communities and environment, and the web of life itself. 

​

Since those interconnections are so critical to young people's development, I also believe that, in this time of unprecedented change, uncertainty and divisiveness, they need --and deserve -- our support for learning how to use connectedness as a potent tool to develop the inner strength, flexibility and courage to navigate whatever lies ahead in their lives. 

​

That's why I interweave community, movement, love of nature, and --whenever possible-- the healing power of the human-animal bond with more conventional therapeutic methods to create fresh, out-of-the-box services for youth ages 3-30.

 

About Me

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my cats, family, and friends. I enjoy traveling, kayaking, hiking, and volunteering with animals.

​

Giving Back to the Community

A portion of the fee for animal-assisted therapy groups is donated back to the non-profit organizations I partner with to provide my services.

​

​