Clinical Bio

As a trauma-focused therapist, I work with adults navigating Complex PTSD, Dissociative Disorders, developmental trauma, attachment disruptions, medical trauma, and grief as well as military and first responders who are impacted by chronic threat exposure or moral injuries. I also have a clinical focus working with adult adoptees, who often experience disenfranchised grief involving the separation from their biological families and the often-unspoken coexistence of gratitude, loss, belonging, identity confusion, attachment pain, and relational longing that can accompany adoption across the lifespan.  

My practice is especially well-suited for individuals who have spent years functioning in survival mode while privately carrying unresolved trauma, dissociation, shame, hypervigilance, emotional numbing, or persistent relational struggles. I create a therapeutic environment that emphasizes safety, attunement, and connection. I appreciate TMT’s core value of curiosity and empathy rather than pathology or judgment.  

What I Really Want You to Know

I want you to know that many of the things you struggle with today may have once been the very things that helped you survive.  The anxiety, dissociation, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, people-pleasing, perfectionism, emotional shutdown, mistrust, or difficulty connecting with others are often not signs that something is “wrong” with you. They are frequently intelligent adaptations created by a nervous system that learned how to survive overwhelming experiences. 

I also want you to know that trauma is not only about what happened to you. Sometimes it is about what did not happen — the safety, attunement, protection, emotional connection, stability, or comfort that was missing when it was most needed.  I believe healing can begin when people are finally met with curiosity instead of judgment.  I believe trauma work should not be rushed, shaming, or emotionally overwhelming. I believe therapy should create enough safety for the nervous system to begin loosening its grip on survival responses that may have been necessary for years.  

I want clients to know that they do not have to explain everything perfectly to deserve care. Trauma is often stored beneath words — in the body, emotions, attachment patterns, impulses, sensations, and protective responses. Sometimes healing begins not with telling the whole story immediately, but with learning how to feel safe enough to stay present.  I want you to know that surviving difficult experiences often requires extraordinary strength, but survival should not have to remain someone’s permanent way of living.  

I believe healing is more than symptom reduction. Healing is helping people reconnect with themselves, their bodies, their relationships, their emotional world, and their capacity for safety, connection, and meaning.  Most importantly, I want you to know that you do not have to heal alone.    

How I Weave Trauma Model Therapy Into My Practice

My clinical approach is strongly influenced by Trauma Model Therapy (TMT), developed by Dr. Colin Ross, MD. This approach helps clients understand that their symptoms developed for protective reasons and allows healing often begins when survival strategies are understood within the context of trauma. The framework that Trauma Model Therapy provides makes it easy to integrate multiple trauma-informed approaches into my work, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), hypnosis, somatic and attachment-focused interventions, parts-oriented work, grounding and stabilization techniques, and Image Transformation Therapy interventions designed to support nervous system repair and emotional integration.