Services
- Individual
About My Clients
Let’s have a discussion about what you want to achieve, and we can come up with a plan that will help you live your best life. I treat the people I work with as "people first," rather than labels, cases, or subjects. Since I have been involved with healing work, the definitions for "disorders" has continually changed. Because I believe in the absolute and intrinsic beauty and worth of human beings, I'm more likely to frame something as a challenge or a difficulty than as disorder.
My Background and Approach
Trained in CBTp, C-RT, and early intervention for psychosis. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years experience in the mental health field working with children, adolescents, adults and their families. I earned my undergraduate Bachelors in Education Family and Community Services degree from the University of Oregon, and my graduate Masters in Social Work degree from Portland State University. I love to learn and have received extensive training in employment assistance training, autism spectrum, and psychosis. My clinical interests and practice experience include employment and education issues, psychosis, severe and persistent mental health challenges, and life transitions. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to partner with people as they make changes in their lives. My therapy style is supportive and interactive using a cognitive behavioral framework focusing on how thoughts impact both our emotions and behaviors.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I am an activist in the disability and human rights movement and have lived my own journey of recovery after receiving multiple diagnoses including schizophrenia as a teenager and then later as woman with Asperger's when I was in my 20s. I love to learn and have received extensive training in autism spectrum and Asperger syndrome, psychosis, and employment assistance training. Additional training has included specialized work in the areas of trauma, grief, emotional regulation/emotional wellness, depression and anxiety disorders, disordered eating/emotional eating, and LGBT issues. In my personal life I am married, we have two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren! I walk 5-10 miles a day with my two Belgian Malinois dogs (coping tools, yes!). I love to read, garden, bicycle, and raise chickens. Softball is my fav team sport to play.