Approach, Specialties and Bio

My approach to therapy

I believe the therapeutic process can be transformative. An opportunity to feel safe and held, to be freed from fear and to do the work of change.

I believe that connection and compassion are antidotes to fear and it is fear that keeps us stuck in old unhealthy beliefs and habits.

We are all seeking healing and wholeness.  Many of these efforts can be unconscious and maladaptive, based on old survival tactics from childhood.  These tactics can include anxiety, depression, unhealthy relationship dynamics, reoccurring unhelpful behavioral patterns, obsessions, etc.

It is important to acknowledge, respect, and be compassionate towards the self that utilizes these tactics in order to survive.  The good news is that these thoughts, behaviors, habits are NOT WHO YOU ARE!  You came up with them before you had any other choices.  You did your best. But now you are grown, now you have the opportunity to release yourself and live differently. 

We all create narratives and beliefs about our worth and what to expect from the world.  We do this to survive.  Therapy, be it in sessions or through interactive journaling, provides a relationship in which you can feel safe enough to step outside of the fear and observe these old beliefs and habits.  My job is to create this safe space, witness, and be completely present with you, to offer exercises and opportunities for you to be quiet, present and trusting of yourself.  My role is to share my observations, insights and the connections that I am able to make from my vantage point and from my years of experience in this work. 

Connection and compassion are antidotes to fear.  Freedom from fear makes room for growth and transformation.

The importance of PRACTICE! 

So often we know that how we behave and how we think is unhealthy but we can’t stop ourselves.  This is incredibly frustrating and disheartening.  Those old beliefs and habits are strong because we created them in childhood and have been practicing them for our entire lives.  They are deeply engrained habits.  The exciting news is that our brains are elastic and constantly changing throughout our entire lives.  Through mindful practice of healthy beliefs and habits we are able to create new neural pathways and new habits!  “Neurons that fire together, wire together”.  We can work together to find ways of practicing that work for you.   

Biography:

I grew up on the coast of Virginia and in 1999 completed my undergraduate degree in Fine Art and Eastern Religious studies at James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley.  I moved to the Bay area in California in 2000 to participate in a training program with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship called the Buddhist Alliance of Social Engagement.  I have had my own (often sloppy yet earnest) meditation practice since learning about Buddhism in college.  I worked for a head-start preschool and then an arts education non-profit in San Francisco and realized that I wanted to use art making for healing but not in education. 

I moved to Portland, OR in 2002 and received my masters in Art Therapy and Counseling from Marylhurst University in 2006.

I interned at Coffee Creek Women’s Prison and at the YWCA Counseling Center.

Since graduating in 2006 I worked worked in private practice at a small counseling center in NE Portland and began supervising LPC interns at the clinic since 2015. 

In 2019, I started Ebb and Flow Therapy Telehealth Therapy Practice. My husband and two kids and I traveled around the country and into Baja, MX in a travel trailer for a good part of the year. After which we spent two years in North Carolina and now have settled for good in Virginia. We live in the small town of Lovingston and spend much of our time on raw land on the Tye River. I am able to work remotely with Oregonians and Virginians through Telehealth as well as to run groups on location for small organizations and businesses if located in Tidewater Area, Nelson or Albamare Counties.

I have worked with adults from many walks of life and have supported them in facing anxiety, depression, major life transitions, grief and loss, illness, trauma, relationship difficulties, parenting challenges and the basic human experience of suffering.