From the minute that you walk into my office, I strive to provide an environment that is a welcoming, warm, and compassionate space for my clients to process the struggles and concerns that caused them to seek out counseling. I realize that beginning the counseling process can be scary and challenging, so one of the primary goals is to create an environment that makes my clients feel safe, secure, and comfortable as they begin to navigate their own personal journey towards growth and well-being. From there, I begin to establish rapport with my clients, seeking to understand the key issues that brought them to counseling, and give them validation and encouragement that they are not alone in dealing with the painful struggles and difficult circumstances that are at times very overwhelming and burdensome. I strongly believe in the importance of collaboration and open and honest communication with my clients. I am not the expert on your life, you are. As a clinician, I desire to hear your feedback and collaborate on the treatment plan that fits who you are, where you’re at, and where you want to be. We are walking on this path together, and I am here for you every step of the way.
I wholeheartedly believe in the healing and restoration that can happen within the therapeutic process. True and lasting change can only happen when people feel free to be themselves without judgment and feel fully accepted and loved within their relationships. Since people are relational beings by nature, I like to focus on the intricacies of my client’s relationships with others, including their family of origin, partner, friends, and other relationships that have significant impact on their lives. Through dissecting a client’s relationships and teaching them how to operate and show up within their relationships more fully, I also hope to improve the client’s relationship that they have with themselves. Self acceptance and love is the key to being able to be authentic and fully present in one’s relationships with other people, so I strongly encourage my clients to work on learning more about themselves and radically accepting who they are while working on improving the aspects of their lives that are holding them back from discovering and living out their fullest potential.
I feel that every person has the inner strength and courage to be able to make revolutionary changes in their lives and I would be honored to walk alongside you through any storm that you may encounter along the way to achieving your goals and living in a way that honors the unique and beautiful individual who you were created to be.
I recognize that oftentimes a person's faith is an essential part of their identity and plays an immense role in how they operate in their lives, both in relation to themselves and other people. I come from a Christian background myself and my Christian faith is a core aspect to who I am and how I view the world. However, the incorporation of faith into our counseling sessions is completely up to you as the client. I understand that some people have been greatly damaged and traumatized by religious beliefs and those that call themselves people of faith, thus they may not look at spirituality as something that has ever benefited them. Your story is of great importance to me and the development of our rapport and therapeutic relationship, and that is where we will start from when deciding whether or not you would prefer to incorporate conversations pertaining to faith/spirituality.
I completely understand why therapy may feel super weird and uncomfortable, especially at the beginning. You are sharing intimate and often painful details of your life with someone you literally just met. I hope to deal with that sense of discomfort by being a warm and inviting person who you feel safe to talk to. Developing rapport with my clients looks different depending on each person's level of comfortability with therapy, experience with therapy in the past, willingness to disclose information, etc. I like to incorporate humor when it is appropriate and really develop a relationship with my clients so they know that even though I am their therapist, I'm also a fellow human being who wants the absolute best for them. I would strongly encourage you to try counseling even if you're on the fence about it. The long-term benefit far outweighs any short-term discomfort you may feel in the first few sessions.
