Welcome! I am so happy that you are taking this step towards healing and growth! I want to offer immense encouragement as you begin your journey of self-understanding. It’s my personal belief that all humans have the power to grow and heal, but sometimes we get lost or stuck on this journey. It can feel overwhelming and disheartening when we find ourselves stuck back in familiar (perhaps uncomfortable) places we’ve already been. That’s okay! It’s a part of healing. It’s my belief that this often occurs because we have memories, feelings, or needs that have gone unacknowledged or pushed aside. Therapy is a powerful place where we can meet these parts with compassion to find healing & wholeness. 

As a therapist, I believe an important factor to establishing trust is authenticity and transparency. I also value safety and collaboration within therapy, and empower clients to always prioritize their safety. My clinical approach focuses on exploring early, often relational, experiences to create an understanding of current struggles and foster healing. Because our narratives often exist outside of our verbal capacities, I work to include somatic-based processing and healing strategies throughout clinical work.   

Pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood

I have a deep passion for supporting individuals throughout their journey with pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood. As a parent myself, I am aware of the magic that lies within parenthood, and also the struggles one can face with finding a sense of identity, managing shame or guilt, or experiencing the re-emergence of wounds that so often occurs throughout parenthood. Additionally, as a relational and trauma-informed practitioner, I am especially passionate about supporting parents who wish to work towards implementing a respect-based and conscious parenting approach.

Somatic therapy

It’s a deep belief of mine that true health and healing must include attention to one’s body. Our body plays a primary role in communicating with ourselves about our world based on the accumulation of our lived experiences and those of our ancestors. By learning to listen to our bodies, we have the capacity to better align with ourselves and our needs. One primary way I support clients with “listening better” to their bodies is through nervous system education and regulation. Because of this, my clinical work typically incorporates nervous system tracking, body movement, somatic processing, breath work, vagus nerve stimulation strategies, and other nervous system regulating strategies.  

Experience

I earned my doctorate in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Before coming to Balanced Awakening, I worked as a staff psychologist at University of Iowa. During my time at University of Iowa, I was entrusted with providing campus-wide therapeutic support and supervising/training doctoral-candidate graduate students. 

I have extensive experience offering both brief and long-term therapy to individuals with a wide variety of ages, identities/intersecting identities, and presenting concerns. I practice from an integrative approach, meaning I utilize an array of therapeutic approaches. Some therapies I have expertise in include: Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic/Bodily Healing, Self-Compassion, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Interpersonal/Psychodynamic Therapies (Interpersonal Process Therapy, Relational Cultural Theory), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, Trauma-Informed, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).