Hi there, thanks for reading! For many of us it's difficult to ask for help, and sometimes it feels like no one around us understands or has been to a really dark or frightening place.
My approach
To me, our family and friends are the most important things in this life, and without them eventually things can feel very empty. Although sometimes we can feel lost even when we have good people around us and a decent job. I try to help everyone I work with sort out what's helping and what's making things worse. It could be our job, an awful inner critic, what we think people see when they look at us in the grocery store, or many other things.
My focus
The clients I work with have mostly been ages 16 to 64 and from widely varying backgrounds, education levels and professions. I've worked with people from remote rural areas and cities of all sizes, and with people who live in areas where they feel culturally and racially welcome or unwelcome.
My communication style
Hopefully everyone I get to work with feels greeted warmly, heard, and like they're talking with someone who genunely cares. Humor to me is very important, and when I've been able to genuinely laugh with someone I work with, I think progress is always possible.
My journey to mental healthcare
This is my third career. I worked in software for ten years in Denver and was bored out of my skull. After that I was a broke artist (a musician and studio engineeer) for eleven years in a remote desert in Southern Colorado. I made a documentary about it all and got to spend a year on the film festival circuit. But... after losing my singing voice I worked as an English teacher, in a homeless shelter, as caseworker in child protection (yes it's as bad as you've heard), and then as a counselor in the poorest, coldest, and most desolate part of Colorado. Through all that I still love new music, mountain biking, meeting people from everywhere, traveling to places people tell me not to go, these cats, and doing all I can to help everyone I'm lucky enough to work with. Thanks for reading.
My goals for you
Most therapists are trained to have the client set specific goals, but I've found it to be a collaboration most of the time. For some people it just starts with, "I want to feel better," but there's usually a way to help a client find specific things they'd like to change or feel better about.
My first session with you
In a first session we talk about a little bit of everything, and hopefully you feel understood and not so alone in whatever you're going through. We don't solve everything in one or two sessions! But we try to connect the big picture and the little one a bit.