The overarching theme that I love working with is transition. Whether that is becoming a parent for the first time, adding another child to your family, moving, changing jobs, changing schools, graduating or simply the change of season - from spring to summer to fall to winter. And amidst all these, whatever age or context, I believe we need rituals to support a growing rhythm that creates and sustains wellness.
But the tricky part is, as we transition, the old patterns, supports and rhythms don’t work anymore and frustration builds. However, this feeling does not equal failure. Instead it is a signal to reevaluate and become conscious of the present needs and establish new rituals and rhythms.
Credentials & Education
I am a licensed mental health counselor.
I graduated from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology with a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology.
I received my Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Spanish from the University of Washington.
I have been trained in Promoting First Relationships through the University of Washington to provide a 10-week curriculum for parents and their infant or toddler to better attune to each other’s social-emotional needs.
I am a certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist.
I have a developmental lens that also draws from perspectives of Attachment, Family Systems, and Depth Psychology.
Therapeutic Framework
Working in homes, classrooms, offices, and the community for more than 15 years, I continue to delight in the spirit of children as they use play, color, body, movement and toys to orchestrate their worlds in meaning making. My role as a therapist is not to direct children into the adult world but slow down adults and invite them into the lens of children - their own or the forgotten childhood-self within them.
Telehealth allows us to make use of the comforts and safety of one’s own home. Objects and spaces in your home that otherwise go unnoticed - now can be leveraged for therapeutic change.
Sessions with kids: Together with play, storytelling, and imagination, we can observe, reflect, and make change using creative expression. Then in wondering together, we can listen deeply and begin to link meaning to the images and metaphors that arise. This creates opportunities for us to name and reauthor stories, as well as provide healing to the stories of pain and replace them with hope.
Sessions with adults: There will be a lot of time for parents/adults to express their feelings, struggles, grief, frustrations, joys, and desires. After expressing and listening, together we will restructure processes and language to support leadership of your own choices rather than reaction to everything around you. I will support with your guidance in creating with you boundaries and structures that allow you to be affirmed in what you need to feel competent and successful as an individual, parent, partner, and community member of your life.
