Personal Statement

I began my career working as a teacher in early childhood/elementary regular and special education. After completing graduate school, I moved on to work as a social worker, academic liaison and advocate for children and adolescents in therapeutic foster care.

I have spent the last ten years working as a therapist with individuals of all ages, providing individual, couples and family therapy. During this time I have also served as a court approved mediator, behavioral health consultant for schools, conference presenter, and university lecturer.

My background in education, foster care, and divorce and custody mediation, has provided many transferable skills to my clinical practice. In order to work successfully with children, one must work with their parents and other significant systems in their lives. The inclusion of family and other systems is necessary for creating interventions with enough environmental support to be effective for the child over time. This work with adults often includes helping them address their own issues, often unrelated to the child, that interfere with parenting. Through my practice with children, I have grown to work with whole families and couples and individuals of all ages.