About

My passion for this work began when I was working at a sexual assault crisis hotline (way back in 2010!). I heard firsthand how understanding one's embodied natural survival strategies (like the freeze response), quickly helped many survivors release shame surrounding their traumas. It was then that I decided I needed to learn everything I could about somatics and trauma. I was lucky enough to take a Neurobiology of Trauma workshop from Jim Hopper during my time on the hotline. I decided then I would become a therapist trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and help other survivors learn to trust their inherent embodied wisdom. 

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I became a client myself when I was ready in my early twenties to address my own traumatic experiences. As a queer person with other expansive sexual identities, I saw a series of therapists who pathologized my and my partners' identities and asked me to waste my precious (and expensive) session time educating them (only to have them frequently pathologize me again). I became angry on my own and my communities' behalf, recognizing and feeling the stigma, emotional harm, and material disadvantage this puts upon already oppressed groups. As I've grown to learn more of my intersecting experiences and identities, navigating the mental health world only gets more difficult to find providers who get it. I know I'm far from alone. That's another big reason why I'm passionate about being a therapist.

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When I went through my own late-identification process as AuDHD, I unlocked another piece of my story that made a world of difference in my life and my work with clients and in the world. My commitment is to learn and improve my understanding and skills to keep holding the whole selves of my clients and work with them to reduce suffering, increase pleasure and presence, and deepen their relationships to their inner world and to their people and communities.