“I believe the foundation for healing and personal growth is made up of compassionate listening, mutual respect, and holistic interventions.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
Becoming a therapist is a second career for me and one that came later in life. I became drawn to this field after I developed insight and healing through my own therapy process. I have always had a passion for helping others and find that seeking help takes tremendous courage. I believe the foundation for healing and personal growth is made up of compassionate listening, mutual respect, and holistic interventions. These are beliefs and attributes I have spent years developing in myself so that I can walk alongside others and encourage them to live a life worth living.
What should someone know about working with you?
It takes courage to enter professional counseling and when you do, it is important to find a good match with your counselor and the modality used. As a therapist, I use holistic strategies that include mindfulness, meditation, trauma-focused therapy, insight approaches, and faith-based interventions. These approaches are scientifically proven interventions that identify core issues resulting from your emotional or personal problems and immediately help develop strategies to resolve these issues. Balance is a reachable goal that is in sight and can be maintained.
What do you do to continue learning and building competencies as a provider?
I focus my practice on increasing my knowledge of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), internal family systems therapy (IFS), mindfulness practice, faith-based interventions, and trauma-focused approaches. I am interested in how these approaches correlate with improving self-awareness and the development of compassion for oneself and others, which ultimately has healing power. I am also always learning how to help people improve their relationships and live lives worth living.
What are you most excited about within the evolving mental health landscape?
What is most fascinating to me in the mental health landscape is the scientific evidence developing around how holistic approaches to healing, which incorporate the body, mind, and spirit, are becoming more prevalent because of their healing potential for the mind. Holistic approaches that include mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and pleasurable activities lead to insight and promote compassion for the self. Compassion then improves a sense of self, emotional regulation, and positive motivation, which allows people to be more compassionate toward others and allows for greater emotional balance and personal growth.
“These are beliefs and attributes I have spent years developing in myself so that I can walk alongside others and encourage them to live a life worth living.”