I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in practice since 2004. I am interested and excited by meeting people who decide to make positive changes in their lives. I have many ideas and skills to help make that happen.
My approach
I believe in meeting people where they are and helping them decide what changes they need to make to improve their lives. I use an eclectic variety of techniques, such CBT, EMDR, and Internal Family Systems and more to address depression, anxiety, life transitions, stress, trauma, grief etc.
My focus
I work mostly with people who are experiencing uncomfortable changes in their lives, and are needing help to get "unstuck" from loss, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life and health transitions, decision making, goal setting, creativity challenges and many more.
My communication style
I am very open accepting and non judgmental. I am older and have a lot of life experience which makes me relate well to people's life challenges. I am a straightforward and honest communicator.
My journey to mental healthcare
I have been a Social Worker since 1981. I wanted to be just that at a very young age when I became aware of social justice issues of the Lyndon Johnson poverty programs. I put myself through college to get my degree as a single mother, working as an LPN. I worked in many areas of heath care as a social worker and in 2001 I went to work at a Community Health Center to do behavioral health therapy with patients there. I then became a Licensed Clinical Therapist and have done that ever since. I left the Community Healthy Center in 2014 to start my own practice and have been a private practitioner since then.
My goals for you
I feel people need to set their own goals, my job is to help them find the pathways to accomplish those goals and teach them how to make effective changes in their lives to accomplish those goals.
My first session with you
I would be getting to know them, hearing their version of the issues that bring them to therapy, and asking questions about their history as it relates to the problem they have come with. I look for the parts of their lives they are proud of and the parts of their lives that have been the hardest.