I always knew I was a good listener. A deep listener. It felt as natural to me as breathing.

Growing up, it seemed to me the whole world felt starved for this kind of deep listening. Both loved ones and strangers I’d meet seemed to drink it in like it was quenching their souls.

When I worked in the mental health field before I started my counseling graduate program, I discovered how this capacity for listening profoundly touched and transformed the lives of the individuals I worked to support in those positions, as well.

This capacity for deep listening and my awareness of how impactful this simple (yet certainly not always easy) act was, along with my deep faith in the human spirit, and my interest in healing and transformation, started me on my journey to become a therapist.

And it wasn’t until I lived my own process of healing and transformation in my own personal therapy, and received from someone even more fluent in the kind of deep listening I gave to others, that I actually felt ready to do this work.

Having lived through my own share of pain, trauma, and loss in life, I learned from the ground-up the pricelessness of therapy; how being in relationship with someone who wanted to know who I was deep down, who sincerely cared for me, who fearlessly walked beside me to face the darkest and hardest parts of my story with me was utterly transformational. How being deeply listened to and accompanied in all parts of my self, my story, and my life rekindled the flame of my wholeness, my own true self.

My own lived experience of healing, along with my education, training, and professional experience, is what makes me the passionate, heartfelt, confident, dedicated therapist I endeavor to be.

I know from my own experience the truth that no matter how bad things might feel, nothing that feels bad is ever the last step. That we are wired for healing, growth, and vitality; and all it takes are the right conditions in the form of the right relationship(s) to unleash that innate potential in every one of us — when we are ready for it.

Today I have the privilege of creating and holding this space with the courageous people who sit with me and dare to do this incredible, life-changing, life-sustaining work. I am moved and inspired by their courage every day.

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I earned my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of South Carolina in 2006, and my master’s degree in Counseling from St. Edward’s University in 2013. I have worked with children, adolescents, and their families; homeless adults; adults struggling with substance abuse; couples; and groups in agency and hospital settings. I currently see individual adults from a diverse range of backgrounds and life experiences. And since 2015, I have had the great privilege and joy of offering trainings to my fellow therapists on the therapy model I practice and was trained in, which you can read about here.

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I’m a person and a therapist who is committed to doing my own work, too. I’m devoted to the regular, ongoing deepening and expansion of my self-growth in my personal life through various means. Additionally, I attend a monthly study group and a monthly consultation meeting, both facilitated by a senior attachment psychotherapist, as well as another bi-monthly peer-consultation group with long-term trusted colleagues. I relish staying as current as possible on the latest research and literature regarding what supports lasting healing and well-being.

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In addition to my life-long love of learning, my extensive life experience, my environmental and social justice activism, and my 16-year meditation practice, I also draw from my reverence for nature, dancing, yoga, creativity, and laughter in my work.