My Background

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional with training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I earned my MA in Counseling from Ottawa University, with a concentration in the treatment of trauma, abuse, and deprivation, and my BA from Colgate University in New York. I’m also the ghostwriter of a book on trauma by J. Eric Gentry, founder of the International Association of Trauma Professionals and vice president of the Arizona Trauma Institute.

My therapy career began at Psychological Counseling Services LTD, a nationally recognized provider of intensive outpatient therapy programs. I’ve also had the privilege of counseling adults, children, families, and couples at Catholic Charities and working as a school counselor at St. Agnes Parochial School in Phoenix. But I believe my greatest assets are my broad life experience and the deep and instinctive sense of empathy I bring to others.

As a child, I traveled the globe with my family as a “state department brat,” so I understand the challenges children and families face as they contend with change and disruption in their lives. I’m a wife and mother with a 30-year marriage and two grown children, so I’m all too familiar with the pleasures and pangs that arise when one’s children leave the nest. After a successful career as a marketing executive, I launched and ran my own business for more than 20 years before deciding to pursue my long-held dream of becoming a professional counselor, so I appreciate and understand the challenges one faces in making a midlife career change.

I place great importance on establishing a trusting, supporting relationship with clients that allows us to collaborate closely to pursue meaningful therapeutic goals. I feel strongly that every individual, couple, and family is unique, so I draw from a variety of therapeutic traditions and modalities, including EMDR, Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Brainspotting, cognitive behavioral strategies, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, mind-body approaches, mindfulness techniques, and expressive art therapy. I have found that EMDR, ART, and Brainspotting can be particularly helpful for clients contending with trauma and as a method for visualizing and enacting positive change. I’m a good fit for anyone contending with anxiety, depression, unresolved trauma, sexual abuse, the loss of a loved one, relationship and attachment issues, and parenting challenges.

If there's one thing I’ve learned, it's that none of us can do it alone. This is my commitment to you: I will serve as your trusted partner who will hold your hope for you when you feel hopeless. I will be the guide you can rely on when the way ahead is unclear, and you fear you might be losing your way. And I will stand by you every step of the way until your journey to a new and better life is complete.