About Me
A Couples and Family Therapist
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for over 15 years, I have a Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development. I have worked in a number of settings to include Community Mental Health, Employee Assistance, and a group private practice prior to working with the VA serving combat Veterans and their families.
Life Experiences
I have life experiences providing a unique, but empathic perspective. Having personally suffered through the pain of divorce, I know the strain that puts on an individual and his or her family as each attempts to adjust. I have raised two sons in my home, one son from a distance, and two stepdaughters. With these experiences, I have lived the challenges of a single parent, a divorced parent raising a child from a distance, and a stepparent, gaining a perspective to help those in a blended family.
Other Experience
I retired from the U.S. Army as a noncommissioned officer with the Chaplain Corps and recently retired from the Department of Veterans Affairs as a Deputy District Director responsible for overseeing 21 Mental Health clinics serving Veterans and their families. This was following my service as a Readjustment Counseling Therapist focusing on Combat Stress and Trauma, along with Military Sexual Trauma, and bereavement as it impacts couples and their family relationships.
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I have supervised those who were in training to be therapists, as well as taught graduate students in the topics of: Clinical Interventions for Combat Stress and Trauma, Foundations of Couples Therapy, and Marriage and Family Therapy: Basic Counseling Skills.
For more information visit my LinkedIn page.
My Approach
Passion, fueled by a spirit of service, drives my interest in working with couples (married, contemplating marriage, or in a significant relationship), parents (in any stage of a developing family), families (any size or configuration), and individuals seeking growth or direction.
I have had remarkable success with couples’ therapy. Whether there are communication problems, feelings of disconnection, anger, resentment, and/or infidelity issues, I help couples reach a deeper level of understanding of one another as individuals and as a couple.
While considering the emotional foundation of the relationship and the emotional entanglements such issues create, I will help enable forgiveness, rebuilding of trust, and assisting each to grow in empathy for one another while providing the tools to move forward, teaching new skills to find contentment, dare I say "joy", in the relationship.
I am also a practitioner of Discernment Counseling to assist those who are unsure if they should remain in the relationship. I will guide the individuals in the relationship assisting them to decide what is in their best interest for a beneficial relationship going forward, whether together or apart.
With families, I assist parents find the skills and methods needed to facilitate their children’s growth into responsible, loving, and respectful adults. If you find your child showing behaviors suggesting s/he is not developing in that direction, I will work with your family to find structure and balance in your relationship with one another.
For individuals, I can guide you to a more productive, self-fulfilling life providing the tools and skills needed to lead to better functioning. Whether you are suffering anxiety or anxiety-related symptoms, depression or other mood management issues, relationship concerns, or desire to be more effective at home or work, we can find success.
With energy and purpose, I use the expertise acquired in my professional and personal experiences, along with my academic knowledge, to serve couples, families, and individuals who may be hurting, in need, or seeking direction. My clients will share I take an engaging, enthusiastic, and collaborative approach to therapy, with an appropriate level of humor because sometimes life is just too serious.
