About Me: I am a registered social worker with graduate level education with a focus on working with individuals, families, and groups. I have experience working with clients from a variety of backgrounds, including minority, marginalized, and at-risk children, youth, and families. I have worked in various settings such as child welfare, residential treatment, substance abuse treatment, youth criminal justice, and international adoption. I have worked passionately with these populations at both community and private levels.

Who I Work With:

• Children
• Teenagers
• Young Adults
• Parents
• Caregivers (including kin and foster)
• Families

My Approach:

I am passionate about siting alongside my clients as they do the courageous work to explore their own experiences, instincts, and relationships and work towards making the meaningful changes in their lives and perspectives that will help them feel confident to work towards the life that they want for themselves. I work from a trauma-informed, neuro-developmentally focused perspective with an emphasis on creative expression, play, and understanding the role of connection (past and present) in a person’s life.  I like to explore creative means to help young people and their support systems build self-compassion, self-awareness, resilience, and self-esteem as they manage the intricacies that come with growing older.  Young people are a function of their support systems, so to support young people, it can be equally if not more meaningful for me to help support family and caregivers as they guide and provide for the youth in their care.

How I Can Help:

I am privileged to be able to provide a compassionate trauma-informed clinical space for my clients as they work towards meaningful change in their lives and relationships using the modalities and techniques that engage them the most. I have a special interest in supporting youth involved with adoption, as well as adoptive parents pre, inter, and post-adoption. I am devoted to sitting alongside  adoptees as they develop their cultural identities and sense of self, process their feelings and reactions associated with trauma, and navigate their unique adoption stories.

Tools I Use:

• Circle of Security Parenting Program (COS-P)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR, Basic Training)
• Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)
• Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy (Level One)
• Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
• Theraplay
• Applied Suicide Skills Intervention Training (ASIST)
• Collaborative Problem Solving™ (CPS, Tier II Certified)