About

Through my own personal and professional journey, I understand what it’s like to uncover and follow your internal compass when your conditioning and environment are in conflict with your authentic self. [My high school aptitude tests predicted I would be a social worker, but] I took the scenic route in becoming a clinical therapist. And that journey informs my work with clients who are navigating anxiety around their own identities and search for understanding and meaning.

My work is shaped by several decades cultivating an in-depth understanding of human behavior and motivation. I spent my twenties in advocacy and communication consulting roles, often supporting social justice causes. In my thirties, I turned my focus to working more intimately with people, and built a real estate business helping people find a place to call home. My curiosity and interest in the details of my clients lives and the life events shaping their moves had me deepen my focus on matters of the heart/personal growth in my forties and juggling two careers as I continued working as a realtor while also, becoming a leadership coach, and ultimately returning to graduate school and extensive training as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist. In a twist of cosmic irony, I have come full circle to a high school aptitude test that suggested social work as a good career, and which I dismissed as incompatible with the self I wanted to create.

As a clinician, I have worked in an outpatient mental health clinic, a community day treatment program, and a university counseling center, in addition to private practice. Today, I enjoy in-depth work with people around relationship issues and identity issues, including professional and career identity, gender and sexual identity, and identities related to stages of life (parenting, aging, retirement). For some clients this may be coming out as an artist after a career in law. For other clients, this may be reconciling a conflict between religious and sexual identities.

As a lifelong learner, I continue to train and learn.

My work is shaped by several decades cultivating an in-depth understanding of human behavior and motivation.

As a lifelong learner, I continue to train and learn. Since earning my MSW from The Catholic University of America, I have completed a certificate program in couples therapy, a fellowship with a psychoanalytic institute, and am in my final year of a psychodynamic clinical program at the Washington School of Psychiatry. I completed a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Kansas.

In addition to my work as a psychotherapist, I coach non-profit managers, therapists, realtors and small business entrepreneurs around business development and aligning their businesses with their personal values.  I also have helped hundreds of individuals and families navigate the decisions and life transitions associated with moving to a new home, and in my first career managed public advocacy and public relations campaigns for the private, government, and non-profit sectors in which social causes were at the forefront of the work.

My work is shaped by several decades cultivating an in-depth understanding of human behavior and motivation. I spent my twenties in advocacy and communication consulting roles, often supporting social justice causes. In my thirties, I turned my focus to working more intimately with people, and built a real estate business helping people find a place to call home. My forties focussed on personal growth, adding coaching to my business, and ultimately returning to graduate school and extensive training as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist—coming full circle to that high school aptitude test.