M.Ed., Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)

  • Are you feeling hopeless in your relationship and struggling to figure out if marriage is worth it anymore?
  • Do you feel like no matter what you try, you’re not connecting with your partner?
  • Are you tired of fighting all the time and rarely, if ever, resolving conflict?
  • Have you ever felt like you and your partner are speaking different languages?
  • Are you experiencing pain from past relationships or trauma?
  • Does low self-esteem, depression, anxiety or past trauma keep you from living the life you want and disconnect you from those you love?

If these concerns sound like you, I might be a good fit for you!

I help my clients find healing, restore balance, and improve their relationships. I consider myself an active participant in the counseling process, and offer support, feedback and evidence-based resources to help aid the process. I listen to your goals for therapy, collaborate with you and am active in seeking solutions that work specifically for you.

I work with individuals ages 15 and up, couples in any stage of their relationship, and families. If you are looking for help, seeking hope, or desiring change that is lasting, I would be honored to walk your journey with you. Life can be hard and lonely, and sometimes we all need the objective, non-judgmental ear of another person. If these sounds like things that you are interested in working through with me, reach out today to schedule an appointment.

Specialty Areas:

Anxiety
Chronic Illness  | Cancer Diagnosis
Couples | Marriage | Relationships
EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)
Emotional Intelligence
Pre-Marital Couples
PTSD
Self-Esteem | Self-Worth
Spiritual Abuse & Religious Trauma
Trauma & Abuse

Couples

Couples that are in any stage of their relationship, including pre-marital, those struggling with relationship issues, those contemplating divorce, and even those who are smiply looking for a boost to their relationship can all benefit from couples therapy.

All of my work with couples is done through the lens of Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Using these methods we can work to identify negative interactions that have caused deep wounds, uncover patterns that keep you from connecting as deeply as you desire, and help you begin to connect in a deeper way with your partner.

Through our work together you will learn how to:

  • Communicate in new and more effective ways
  • Learn how to express emotions and feelings
  • Understand negative cycles that keep you gridlocked in perpetual conflict
  • Identify attachment wounds or needs that are keeping you from having the relationship you desire
  • Focus on extending grace and understanding to your partners emotional needs and feelings, and identify your own needs and feelings
  • Create pivotal moments of reaching out and responding to each other so that ultimately, you find emotional safety, a deeper emotional connection and develop a secure bond with each other.

Individuals

I use a combination of talk therapy, elements of CBT, Mindfulness, EMDR and aspects of Somatic Therapy to help you find hope, develop healthy coping skills, and heal from deep wounds. I tailor therapy sessions to the unique needs and goals that you bring to therapy.

  • Process traumatic events or situations or PTSD that have created barriers to living the life you want to live
  • Heal from abuse and develop confidence as you move forward
  • Learn how to implement healthy boundaries, advocate for yourself and your needs and how to be assertive
  • Better navigate living with chronic pain or cancer
  • Process your grief or loss
  • Develop healthy coping skills for anxiety
  • Learn how to find the connection with others that you have been longing for
  • Understand attachment wounds and needs
  • Develop emotional awareness that can also help you identify relationships concerns you may be experiencing

Families

Often when we experience a stressor, significant life transition or loss, the impacts go beyond just ourselves. The effects ripple throughout the entire family unit.  Counseling as a family can help you learn how to better navigate the challenges of life transitions; such as an eating disorder, divorce, separation, loss of a loved one, addiction within the family, addition of a new baby or foster child, or other stressors.

  • Begin to recognize and understand how individual problems affect and impact all members of the family
  • Identify and improve negative interactions
  • Identify any communication that keeps conflict ongoing
  • Understand the impact of healthy relationships within the family structure
  • Become aware of the relationships you have with each other, as well as how those relationships directly impact how you interact with those outside of your family.

I have experience working with families navigating young children in the home, adolescents, teenagers, and adult children, as well as working with foster families.

About Me / My Approach

I was drawn to counseling as a profession after working in several non-profit, community and church positions, the education field, and being a foster parent for many years.  While I loved most of my time in these positions, I realized that I was limited in the amount of help I could give others and did not have enough skills or education to effectively help those around me make sustainable change or truly heal from life’s hurts.

Watching marriages struggle yet seem to find little hope or tools to create change, individuals crippled with trauma or attachment wounds and feel hopeless to connect with others, and still others struggle to cope with the burden of life caused me to seek answers and to look for solutions. I found the counseling field provided those answers, and combined with over 20 years of working with individuals, couples and families, as well as continued education and training, I now have some of the tools and resources that felt missing for years.  I don’t claim to know all the answers or have all the tools, but I can promise that I will walk with you through your battles, empower you to learn the tools I have gained throughout my journey, and offer you research-based practices to help you move forward in whatever issue you may be facing.

I believe that emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health all play a large part in creating healthy individuals, which in turn, create healthy relationships and healthy families. When any one of these is out of balance or hold unresolved wounds, it affects not only our overall wellbeing, but our closest relationships as well, keeping us from becoming the whole person we desire to be. I help individuals and couples restore balance, find healing and learn to develop or take care of every aspect of their lives so they can be the healthiest individual, couple or family they can be. Taking the step to make ourselves a priority is truly one of the most amazing things we can do for ourselves and our relationships.

In addition to counseling, I serve as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Clinical Counseling Program at Central Methodist University. I also enjoy providing workshops on Mental Health topics for non-profits, schools and churches, leading couples retreats and workshops, parenting workshops, PICK-A-Partner workshops for singles, trauma support groups and suicide prevention trainings.

If you are interested in workshops or trainings for your place of employment, team or other group, I’d love to work with you!

My Education / Certifications / Continued Learning

Master’s of Education (M.Ed.) from Stephens College in Columbia, MO, earning a degree in both Licensed Professional Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapy.
Dual Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.) from Calvary University in Education and Music, Emphasis in Piano.
Trained in Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP)
Trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Completed Level 1 of Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Certified Prepare-Enrich Facilitator
Certified Prepare-Enrich Trainer for Facilitators
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Trainer
Certified LOVE Thinks/PICK-A-Partner Instructor
Completed additional training in trauma, eating disorders, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) with couples

Member of the American Counseling Association (ACA)
Member of The International Centre For Excellence In Emotionally Focused Therapy(ICEEFT)
Member of EMDR International Association (EMDRIA.org)
Member of The Association of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness (ACSSW)