About

INSPIRED BY CHANGE

I love a challenging kid! Most likely because I was also a challenging kid.  In middle school and high school, I made many poor decisions and had to visit the Principal’s office on a few occasions.  I was stubborn.  I relished proving a teacher wrong and that I was correct.  I thought I knew everything.  I enjoyed talking to all of my classmates whenever I could, regardless of whether the teacher approved.  Best of all, I was a horrible driver which resulted in several embarrassing accidents that frustrated my parents, but they supported me through it – financially and emotionally.

In addition to my own mistakes, I got to watch my twin brother collide with certain teachers, date interesting girls, and struggle academically throughout high school.  I also watched as my older sister dealt with test anxiety.  My parents had learned how to support my brother and I through school transitions because of the difficulty my sister had with the change from elementary school to middle school.

I came to a realization that no matter how smart you are, or how great your family is, adolescence is just a hard time for teenagers to navigate.

From these experiences, I developed a strong desire to help others avoid the pitfalls that I look back upon today and pursued psychology in college and graduate school.  After I graduated and started to work in the field, I realized that I had a lot to offer teens trying to find their way.   I found that communicating with struggling teens was easy for me and I could provide a safe place for those teenagers to come and talk about their fears, worries, and frustrations, while also helping them to see things from a perspective other than their own.

I can be an adult figure supporting them while also getting to enjoy the person they are becoming. I get to see in counseling sessions the adult that your teen could become.

Work

GREAT EXPERIENCE MATTERS

I have worked with countless number of children and adolescents.  I worked at Rosecrance Berry Center focusing on children and adolescents with diagnoses of: anxiety, adjustment disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD, and anorexia.  I enjoyed my time there and it allowed me to learn and grow as a counselor while managing anywhere from 20 to 100 clients at a time.  You learn how to help quickly, be assertive, and yet challenge your clients to grow.  You also find out what your limits are and how important it is to be passionate about what you do.  I have seen clients not make progress and it was due to the relationship not being built, but expectations being demanded.

My therapy approach consists of mainly cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing either your thoughts or behaviors to impact how you feel.  I also use motivational interviewing techniques to help client’s find internal motivation to change their behavior.   I am very future-oriented in counseling sessions to help clients also understand the importance of time, growth, and making steady change.