Your Journey to Becoming a Counselor
I grew up in Colorado and ventured to Oregon for college. During my undergraduate years I found myself working in disaster relief and found myself drawn to the helping professions. I have always been a highly relational person and at the encouragement of good friends pursued my master’s in clinical mental health counseling. I have been licensed in the state of Colorado for ten years, and have spent most of my career working in higher levels of care including inpatient and residential treatment settings.
As I have grown and developed professional I have tended a building passion for teaching and training new counselors. I am currently enrolled in PhD studies so that I can teach future counseling students.
Your Approach to Counseling
My approach to counseling is rooted in evidence based cognitive behavioral practices, humor, and creativity. There are a lot of useful tools out there for managing mental health needs, and I like to teach clients how to creatively apply these tools in sustainable ways indivdiualized to personal expereince. How we think about things and ourselves has a big influcence on our experience of life; I work with clients to identify unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, to identify harmful behavior patterns and work towards more sustainable and beneficial engagement with lifes challenges.
As a counselor I believe it is my job to be your biggest cheerleader and challenge all of my clients to step out of their comfort zone. Through the experience of the therapeutic relationship we work together to establish new and sustainabile ways of showing up when the going gets rough.
Specialty Areas
My specialty areas include working with men, women, and teens who are struggling with the following. I am focusing my internship on including animal-assisted therapy and equine-assisted therapy within the following areas:
- Eating Disorders (ED)
- Men & Exercise Behaviors
- Partners impacted by ED
- Body Image Concerns
- Life Transitions
- Chronic Anxiety
- Chronic Depression
- Christian Counseling
Degrees and Certifications
BA History, University of Oregon
MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Denver Seminary
Current PhD Student, Counselor Education and Supervision, Denver Seminary
Trained in:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Dialectal Behavioral Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Emotion Focused Family Therapy