I’d like to tell you a little about myself.

I have a passion for this work personally and professionally.

I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years experience and I offer individual therapy, couples therapy, and discernment counseling for adults in Missouri, Illinois, and Florida. I work with partners, family members, and individuals who feel stuck in their relationships and want help understanding patterns and creating healthier ways of connecting.

I came to this field after discovering my interest in psychology and through my own lived experience.

As a recovering avoidant, people-pleasing, self-sacrificing human, therapy helped me learn how to be more direct, ask for what I need, and feel secure enough in myself to have more satisfying relationships. It changed my personal life and shaped how I show up as a therapist.

Much of my early career was spent in crisis settings. I valued the unpredictability and fast pace but I missed sitting with people over time and helping them make sense of their inner worlds and relationship patterns. I find that I can still tap into those crisis skills when appropriate in session, and they are especially helpful in Discernment Counseling.

I live for the moments when clients connect the dots between their past and present and realize, “Oh… that’s why I do what I do.” Those moments bring relief, self-compassion, and the understanding that they’re not broken and their patterns once made sense. We then work on letting go of the patterns that are getting in the way of what they want now. I’m always in awe of the transformations I have witnessed.

I do my best work with these issues.

  • One person wants to stay in the relationship but the other is ambivalent about staying
  • Navigating people-pleasing, self-sacrifice, and codependency
  • Caregiving or emotionally demanding relationships
  • Non-Monogamy, Polyamory, Kink
  • Adult family members such as adult siblings, adult children and their parents
  • Exploring how past experiences shape present patterns
  • Substance use or other compulsive behaviors that affect relationships
  • Transitions throughout the lifespan, college/employment, finding a partner/dating, early parenting, parenting transition-age children, empty-nesting, middle age changes, transitioning and embracing aging
  • Exploring identity, sexuality, sex, intimacy, desire discrepancies

My approach is grounded in authenticity and connection.

I tend to validate yet be direct when needed. I’m interested in how you and I feel in our relationship, what I’m triggering inside of you and what you are triggering inside of me. I use that to understand how you may be experiencing other relationships in your life. And I want us to feel connected enough to talk about these things when they come up.

I like to explore how your past experiences, attachment patterns, and protective strategies developed so I can understand what they’ve been trying to do for you. I also like to work in the present to find out what strategies remain effective and what are interfering with your life in this moment. Sometimes I use parts work to guide you through this. I also appreciate mindfulness strategies and will discuss them when you are stuck in the past or future.

I have formal training in the following evidence based modalities:

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
  • Discernment Counseling
  • Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Narrative Therapy
  • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
  • Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist

And I am continuously reading and educating myself on various theories of mind in the field including, but not limited to:

  • Attachment Theory
  • Family Systems
  • Parts Work
  • Relational Psychodynamic
  • Trauma and nervous system adaptations

I also attend regular personal therapy and professional consultation because I believe in the power of consistently looking at myself as a therapist and being in spaces with other therapists who can challenge me in my growth.

When I’m not in the therapy room, this is a bit about who I am.

When I’m not in session, I’m a pet parent to two sassy cats and a kitten foster, a mediocre master chef, and an enthusiastic chaos-initiator in Dungeons & Dragons. I love reading fiction and nonfiction, dabble in painting, and spend a lot of time in my native wildflower garden.

You’ll also find me practicing mindfulness, yoga, walking, and connecting with friends and family over food, games, sports and good and bad tv.