The Support I Offer

I am passionate about joining with others in their journeys and helping them to create the lives and relationships they are designed for. I create a warm, nurturing, and casual environment to walk with clients through their pain, confusion and possible shame. I specifically consider it an honor to use practical tools to help first responders go from a set back to a come back. I also help first responder couples navigate the dynamics of the career and help them get the strong relationship they desire. I will listen and assist you to move through your Brave and Compassionate Journey.

I have spent the majority of my career as a therapist helping individuals and couples through life’s hurdles. I am not shy about carrying the hope for my clients when they feel there is no hope.

Over the past 25 or more years, I have received a lot of training in several modalities. (EMDR and The Gottman Model of Couples Therapy, IMAGO and EFT) However, the longer I work with people, the more I know that regardless of the modality of therapy used, the goal is to help my clients step out of fear and pain and into love, light and freedom.

My clients share that they appreciate my compassionate, no nonsense approach. I am not one to sit silently, asking, “How does that make you feel?” Instead, I am the therapist who will climb into the hole with you or your family; find out what has happened to get you stuck; and in a compassionate and knowledgeable way, show you the steps to take in order to climb out. I know change is sometimes difficult. Moving beyond the ‘stuckness’ of life takes real courage, but I know it is possible.

I am a wife of over 33 years (to one man who I am in love with), a mom of 4, and a G-Ma. My life, and that of my children’s lives, has been full of hills, twists, and turns. I know from the inside out about marriage, parenting, and trauma. I also know the freedom good common sense therapy and compassion, as well as continually practicing resiliency, can provide in life.

I consider it an honor to walk others through their own  Brave and Compassionate Journey.

I am certified and provide trauma therapy and EMDR for those who want relief and refreshment at a very deep level. EMDR has been found to be effective in working with individuals with trauma. It is a tool that is used with “Big T” traumas (acute, one-time events), such as accidents, assaults, and events outside the norm of daily events. EMDR is also effective in treating “Small t” traumas (chronic) that keep us stuck in self-defeating patterns. These “Small t” traumas are often things we have gone through some years past and believe we have moved beyond them. However, bullying, being yelled at, and failures of the past can still haunt us in our responses to similar situations today.

EMDR is approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense as a treatment for PTSD. I provide EMDR and trauma therapy for firefighters, CHP, veterans, law enforcement officers, nurses, and EMS. As I take my clients through the journey of recovering from trauma, I also teach coping and emotional regulating skills and self-care.

I currently offer EMDR Intensives for those who wish to experience relief from their symptoms in a more expedient manner.

If you are a therapist, you can connect with me regarding consultation on my EMDR Consultation page.

You can read more about my approach to trauma work through My Blogs on Trauma and Grief.

You can read more about What is EMDR from the EMDR Institute.