Thank you for taking the time to get to know me! I came to be a counselor after 15 years of working in technology. My undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering. Wait! What? Yes, I was an engineer working in corporate sales before deciding to back to school to change my career. At work, my passion was helping other people grow. Of course, I believed in my products and customers, but what I really loved was mentoring new coworkers and being a sounding board for others. I realized that in my work environment, I became a confidant to many people due to my inherent curiosity and listening abilities.

It took a lot of soul-searching, but I eventually realized that I needed to align my passion and my career. I enrolled at St. Edward’s University’s counseling program and have never looked back.

My first personal experience with mental health was with my primary care doctor. I went in complaining of physical symptoms and after many tests, my doctor told me that anxiety was probably my issue. That hit me like a ton of bricks - I had never considered that my body could manifest the symptoms that were coming from my mind. I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to feel better fast, so I decided to seek counseling.

Once I started learning about anxiety and the reasons I may be anxious, I was hooked on healing and figuring out how to live with a healthy mind and body. Counseling turned out to be the cornerstone of my journey to health and that along with yoga and mindfulness practices, I began to feel much better. I handled stress and challenging relationships much better. I began feeling like my true self, not the person I had to be to control my anxiety. That was many years ago and now I want to help others live their healthiest life.

Advanced training in EMDR Therapy - EMDR Certified

As a client, I experienced EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and found it to be an amazing healing modality. I knew that when I became a counselor, I would immediately become trained so I could provide this transformative therapy to my clients. I have since gone on to obtain my EMDR Certification and continue to enhance my skills through additional consultation and training. EMDR Therapy is a protocol that helps people reprocess traumatic events and unlocks the brain’s ability to heal itself. EMDR Therapy can be used for much more than trauma, however. We can work on enhancing performance, controlling anxious thoughts, etc. EMDR Therapy works by focusing on the beliefs we have about ourselves and how those beliefs are tied to old memories. Our nervous system goes throughout our bodies - not just above our shoulders and EMDR Therapy acknowledges that memories and beliefs can be stored anywhere in our nervous system. If you have had the experience of being triggered (feeling emotions or body sensations) by seemingly unrelated/minor events, EMDR Therapy could be for you.