I have been practicing as a therapist since 2015 when I earned my master's in counseling from Antioch University Seattle. A few decades of exposure to different forms of suffering, healing, and inspiration drew me to this work. I have personal experience with anxiety struggles, pain and joys of LGBTQ+ coming-out and seeking belonging, ongoing practice in facing my white privileges, learning from wise teachers, and being in loving relationships and communities where I have felt seen and welcomed as myself. I have also had secondary exposure that has deepened my compassion, respect, and interest in other people's struggles and brilliance--through supporting loved ones through trauma and loss; studying systems of injustice and narratives of resistance; and listening to thousands of people's stories of poverty, violence, survival, and cultural resilience through years working in social services before I entered the counseling field. Originally raised in the Maine woods, then moving to the cities of Philadelphia and Seattle in adulthood, my therapeutic presence is rooted in the steadiness and quiet of trees, and in the nourishment of human-to-human connection across difference and shared experience.

Through all the kinds of education I've had so far, I believe every person has deep basic needs for safety and growth, and develops adaptive ways of being in the world in response to how well those needs have been met, beginning with caregivers and social environment. When those adaptations start to become less helpful over time, or when social-emotional needs go unmet for too long, distress can develop.

My approach to addressing these wounds is relational and emotions-focused, grounded primarily in teachings on early attachment, psychodynamics, social dynamics, the nervous system, and mindfulness. This means that I tune in to present-moment internal experiences that arise during sessions, with compassionate curiosity and care for connected patterns of feeling, thinking, and acting that have formed through interpersonal experiences, especially early in life. I work to co-create a therapy relationship that is healing, supportive, and a focus of exploration in and of itself, through which new ways of being with oneself and others can emerge. Most of my treatment methods are drawn from AEDP, which is a healing-based, explicitly relational, transformation-oriented experiential model of psychotherapy focused on alleviating psychological suffering by undoing unbearable aloneness and helping to process overwhelming emotions, to mobilize positive change in our neuroplastic brains.

My style is often exploratory and conversational, at other times gently guiding and experiential. As a person, I bring a warm, attentive presence, patience, and deep listening. Clients tend to share that they feel safe, cared about, and supported in finding their own path. I love this work and the people I get to know.