Following attending the University of Dayton (majoring in Psychology, minoring in Biology and French), I moved to Colorado to attend the University of Denver. Through fieldwork experience and internships, I got hands-on experience in the worlds of women’s-specific and general substance abuse, domestic violence, and trauma work. Following an internship, I was hired on full-time at Women’s Recovery where I was able to work with amazing women and their families as they navigated early recovery and worked through trauma histories via group, individual, couples, and family sessions. Skip forward a few years, and I was lucky enough to get hired on at The Meadows Outpatient Center DTC, where I dove deeper into the trauma work with clients via group and individual therapy. After years of specialized agency work, I decided to slowly but surely start taking on private clients.
In my work, I encourage high amounts of self-reflection from my clients happening in and outside of sessions. After all, if we are looking to make meaningful change, will 1 hour out of 168 hours in a week suffice? Probably not. I encourage identifying action items in sessions and collaborate with clients to pinpoint specific, achievable short-term goals. You will also likely hear me encouraging journaling. Journaling utilizes similar concepts to therapy, only you are having the conversation with your own mind.
I am an eclectic therapist, pulling from many counseling approaches. Below are my main theories I draw upon:
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): This theory draws mostly upon the concept of attachment styles, and examines patterns of relational attachments throughout our lifetimes. (Fun fact: You can change your attachment style!)
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): This approach emphasizes awareness of emotions and connection to ourselves. You will notice I continually request an emotion to be named (this is typically harder for people than it sounds) and we will work with that emotion along with secondary emotions (our feelings about our feelings).
Narrative Therapy: This modality encourages exploration of our past to better understand our present selves. Narrative therapy encourages helpful meaning-making and helps un-write negative stories we have created over time about ourselves.