About

I am licensed in Minnesota with 12 years of professional work experience. I have a depth of experience in helping clients with stress and anxiety, lgbtq+ related issues, family conflicts, & trauma and abuse.

My career has been focused on providing services in a variety of private practice and clinical treatment settings, including residential, in-home, vocational, and educational programming and training agencies. Clients have remarked that I develop supportive relationships with them and their families without becoming overly emotionally involved. I have a broad and systems-based depth of knowledge of individual and family treatment and habilitation service provision in mental health, trauma, child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, drugs and alcohol abuse, foster and adoptive care, and therapeutic interventions. This knowledge extends to related services, including people with disabilities, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities and developmental delays.

Years of Experience: I have 35 years of extensive human services experience. Since graduating in 2013 with a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling, I have focused on clinical private practice.

Areas of Expertise: I have a broad-based knowledge of individual, couple, and family treatment with those who have experienced marginalization due to being diverse or a minority in an unwelcoming majority setting. Their experiences can result in a range of stand-alone or co-occurring issues with anxiety, major depressive concerns, trauma backgrounds, personality concerns and issues related to neurodiversity conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), selective mutism, panic attacks, Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and autism spectrum disorder.

Additionally, I have experience working with people going through grief and loss associated with chronic pain, major illness, death, suicide, divorce, abandonment, foster care, adoption, child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, addictions and dependence, poverty and systemic societal barriers to quality of life goals, sexual identity and LGBTQ+ concerns and those interested in reframing their choices to more sex-positive and alternative lifestyles.

I also have extensive experience in habilitation in the areas of treatment and disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, advocacy, autism spectrum disorders, independent living services, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, brain injuries and other developmental delays, severe emotional disorders, supported living services and mental Illness.

Areas of Interest: Children, Teens and Adults, Individual, Couples and Family, Individual and Systems, Foundational Dialectical Behavioral Therapist, Trauma Informed Therapist and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies of many different types and techniques.

Clinical Approach: I have an eclectic theoretical approach that allows me to practice an eclectic type of therapy featuring dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) with adults, teens and families, emotionally focussed therapy (EFT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Adlerian, attachment, family and maladaptive systems. I also find benefit at times from Gottman Relationships and Conflict Resolution materials and Narrative, Person-Centered and Schema Therapy. And overall, I tend to find many of the people I see appreciate my understanding and attention to Solution Focused best practices.

I see each client and their struggles as being unique and requiring an individual plan that is important to them, regardless of what others might think would best benefit them to work on first. I try to approach each client with empathy and genuine regard and strive to help my clients find wholeness. For these reasons, I appreciate many aspects of person-centered therapy. I also incorporate a behavioral approach toward facilitating change. I believe everyone can benefit from the skills taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. I aim to teach people how to increase their emotional regulation and distress tolerance while increasing their use of mindfulness and coping skills and making needed lifestyle changes that maximize their mental health and quality of life balance and improve their interpersonal relationships.

Education:
Walden University, Master's Science, Mental Health Counseling, 2010 - 2013. For Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, LPCC

St. Cloud State University, Bachelor of Arts, Sociology, Human Relations/Diversity Studies, 1987 - 1991

License & Credentials: State of MN, 3525, NPI 1437498896

Hobbies/Interests: I am a parent to five children, two adopted and three biological. Long-time single co-parent of a diverse family. A Silver Labrador and Cattle Dog owner. Originally from a variety of in and outstate small towns and eventually Minneapolis, Minnesota. But have also lived in St Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; and New York City, New York/New Jersey area. As my kids have finished up their elementary and secondary school years and entered college, I have prepared for my empty nest years by returning to my prior appreciation and love of reading, live music, movies, boating, camping, hiking, genealogy, gardening and spending quality time with friends and family with good food and/or while traveling when possible. I believe that our world can be an amazing place that we can explore from anywhere, from our own home to visiting a foreign country and seeing sights and meeting people we have never encountered before.

"I enjoy working with clients to create an open and safe exchange of information in a supportive environment, without fear of judgment. I believe it takes mindfulness and courage to create a better life for oneself and those they are involved with. Therefore, I am here to support people in that journey towards feeling relief and comfort when they choose to work towards it."