About Therapy
What is therapy anyway?
Deciding to start therapy can feel incredibly daunting, and I am a firm believer that anyone can benefit from it.
If you have never been in therapy before, you will learn that it can have many, many uses! From losing important relationships to managing stressors of daily life, therapy is an opportunity to examine what’s not working and reestablish your sense of power, presence, and peace in your life.
Therapy can help you understand your thoughts, feelings, and experiences that may be difficult to make sense of on your own.
Clients will often learn how their experiences have shaped them, instill new meaning in their life, and recenter around their inherent resilience and resourcefulness.
The result of good therapy is having a greater sense of self-compassion and emotional softness around triggers and new positive ways of relating to yourself and others.
Forming the right relationship is essential.
The therapeutic relationship is unlike any other kind of relationship.
In therapy, you want to feel comfortable, at ease, and like you are talking to a good friend, with the certainty that your therapist is also a professional who has knowledge and expertise in the areas you are looking to explore.
Having someone listen is helpful, and receiving tangible feedback and direct communication about the things you aren’t seeing clearly is necessary. Someone who can hold space for you, be compassionate, and keep you accountable for making real change happen is the mark of a great therapist.
This kind of therapeutic relationship is what helps people be successful in therapy. Feeling that you could tell your therapist anything without being judged or feeling invalidated for it is essential. Being transparent, authentic, and unfiltered is a luxury in therapy everyone deserves.
My priority is for my clients to feel seen and heard when meeting with me. I feel good about the work I do when my clients have the sense that I understand their inner world and care about their experiences.
I take pride in building rapport quickly through the use of humor and giving clients the sense that they are talking with another human who cares about them and the changes they want to make. When you can lay all your cards on the table in therapy, your therapist can guide you to real change.
About Me
Past experiences provide me with insight.
I aim to reduce suffering by leading with kindness, curiosity, and compassion. I am no stranger to the experience of suffering, and my challenges throughout life have given me a strong sense of grit, for which I am thankful.
My experiences of suffering allow me to connect deeply with clients and understand them not only on a professional level, but a personal level as well. I will always feel privileged to know another person’s most intimate experiences and honored to provide support and guidance.
Training is requisite for effective therapy.
My educational background includes a Bachelor of Education in Family and Human Services and a Master of Science in Couples and Family Therapy from the University of Oregon. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist Associate in Oregon. I am pursuing dual licensure as an LPC and LMFT and have experience working with individuals, couples, and families.
I have completed the necessary training to supervise pre-licensed individuals in Oregon and love helping others find their sense of self as a therapist.
As a lifelong learner, I love integrating different therapeutic modalities to meet the needs of my clients best. My primary treatment modalities include IFS (Internal Family Systems), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy), CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), and Solution-Focused Therapy.
Having a life outside of work provides balance.
When not in session with clients, I enjoy spending time with my husband and daughter. We have a bit of a zoo at home with two dogs named Opal and Goose and two cats named Beau and Sasha.
I taught Barre 3 for two years while I was in graduate school and found that it exponentially helped me be a better therapist by knowing when and how to slow my mind and body down, understand the difference between discomfort and pain, and lean into the areas that present challenge in life.
I am relatively new to the Portland area, so I love exploring different neighborhoods and coffee shops and walking by the river. I am a total foodie and am always in search of the best ramen, sushi, and pizza! I always appreciate any hidden treasures you know of in Portland that you can share.