I completed my Bachelors in Social Work at the University of Montana in Missoula Montana, in 2000.  Shortly thereafter, I relocated to Anchorage, Alaska, where I have been working in the mental health field and enjoying the outdoors ever since. I completed my Masters in Social Work at the University of Alaska, in Anchorage, in 2005. Throughout the course of my career I have provided a range of human services, including wilderness therapy, facilitating community needs assessment of services, conducting research of best practice methods for treating co-occurring mental illness and chemical dependency, and clinical work in outpatient as well as residential treatment settings.

After working in the addictions treatment field for ten years, I began to expand my practice to treating trauma and other experiences that can lead to addiction or problematic behaviors or thinking patterns. I currently specialize in working with Complex PTSD, dissociative disorders, depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Often I see clients who have chronic pain, constant worry, persistent negative thoughts of self, or other debilitating symptoms that make life feel unbearable at times.

I believe the goal of psychotherapy is to assist a person to access their own internal resources to achieve reduction or tolerance of symptoms. It is most important to me that changes be made at the neurological and physical level so that the benefits are long-term and carry on beyond the end of psychotherapy. The process of psychotherapy with me may involve developing new thought patterns, new beliefs about self, learning new reactions to oneself, and exploring how existing coping mechanisms were developed. It always involves practicing grounding through mindfulness and sensory-based activities.

My work as a psychotherapist is informed by relational and attachment theories, as well as neuroscience.  I am trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and have attended numerous specialized workshops, such as Early Trauma Protocol for EMDR (Sandra Paulsen) and EMDR FLASH training. I am an active member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, and a member of the National Association for Social Work. I maintain ongoing consultation to enhance my ability to provide sound, best-practice psychotherapy.