Personal Experience
I came to this work later than most. Years in the corporate world came first, and then a stretch of real upheaval in my own family. Those years taught me things a classroom never could.
Home has been the Pacific Northwest for more than twenty years, though I grew up in the Midwest. My two teenagers, one of them neurodivergent, have shown me how differently kids can experience the same world, and how fast a kid’s strengths drop out of view when everyone is focused on what is hard.
Art has always been part of it. For seven years I taught art appreciation at Puesta del Sol here in Bellevue. That is where I learned how much a child will tell you through what they make, long before they can say it out loud. Outside of work you will find me traveling, outdoors as much as possible, or chasing my son down a mountain on a bike.
Lived experience and clinical training are stronger together. That is why I do this, and why the hard parts do not scare me.
Working with Children
Children show you what they are carrying long before they can explain it. This comes out in play, in behavior, in worry, in going quiet, or in feelings that arrive faster than they can handle.
I am a Child-Centered Play Therapist because play is how children think out loud. Give a child a safe space with clear boundaries and room to lead, and they will work through what is bothering them without having to narrate it. I also use art, sand tray, games, and books to build emotional vocabulary and to teach kids what to do when they are overwhelmed.
When a behavior is hard, I want to know what it is asking for. That is usually more useful than trying to shut it down. Once we understand it, a child can start building the skills to handle that moment differently.
Working with Adolescents & Teens
Adolescence is a lot. Bodies change, friendships get complicated, and the big questions about identity all show up at once. What happens in these years shapes mental health for a long time afterward.
Trust comes first with teens. I want therapy to be a place where your teen can say what is going on without being managed or corrected. Depending on the child, that might look like conversation, art, narrative work, mindfulness, or skills drawn from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). I spent years with children in a classroom, and I still find that making something together gets to the feeling faster than talking about it does.
I have worked with young people dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, neurodivergence, identity questions, family conflict, high-conflict divorce, substance use, and high-risk situations. My job is to meet a teen where they are and help them find the internal resources and strengths they are already developing.
Supporting Families & Parents
A child does not exist apart from their family. When it makes sense, I work with the whole system.
Families are complicated and always shifting. You can love each other and still get stuck in the same loop of misunderstanding, defensiveness, and distance. A lot of my job is translating what is happening underneath that loop so people can actually hear each other. I bring what I know about neurobiology, trauma, attachment, and development into that work.
I also work closely with parents. If you are trying to figure out what is driving your child’s behavior, get communication working again at home, or build a home that supports what your child is doing in session, we can do that together.
Everyone in the family gets to be heard. No matter their age, no matter the issue.
Experience & Approach
I did my clinical internship at Friends of Youth in Issaquah, a nonprofit serving young people. Most of my clients there stayed with me a year or more. I have worked with children and young adults from age 6 to 24, from a lot of different backgrounds. Before I became a therapist I was a substitute teacher, a camp counselor, a swim instructor, and an elementary art teacher.
People have strengths that get hard to see under stress, and a good chunk of therapy is finding them again. I work from the belief that our relationships shape our mental health more than almost anything else, and that the earliest ones set the pattern for the ones that follow. Depending on who is in front of me, I bring in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
I am interested in how the body holds what the mind is carrying, and in helping people understand how their own wiring shapes their emotions and reactions.
Divorce & Family Transitions
Divorce reorganizes a family, and children usually absorb more of it than the adults realize. Some become the caretaker. Some go quiet. Some hold it together at one house and fall apart at the other.
I work with children and teens going through separation, divorce, and whatever the family looks like afterward, including high-conflict situations. I help them make sense of what is changing, put words to the loyalty and anger and grief that feel too tangled to say out loud, and stay close to both parents without carrying the fight between them.
I also work with parents on co-parenting, so the adults can make decisions with a clearer picture of what their kid is actually going through..
Neurodivergence & Twice-Exceptional Kids
I know neurodiversity and giftedness well, including twice-exceptional children whose strengths and struggles hide each other so effectively that neither one gets addressed.
My work here is neurodiversity-affirming. I am not trying to help a child pass for typical. I want them to understand how their own brain works, build skills that fit it, and stop believing that different means broken. I work with parents on the same shift, so home becomes a place where their child can do well as they are.
Ready to Begin?
Reaching out is hard. That is true whether you are a parent worried about your child, a teen who is not sure about any of this, or an adult in the middle of a change you did not choose.
You do not need to know what is wrong before you start. We can begin with whatever is happening right now.
If you are ready to look honestly at yourself, or at your family, and get better at how you connect, I would be glad to do that with you.
I offer in-office and telehealth sessions through secure, HIPAA-compliant platforms.
Start creating the best version of you
Get Started Today!
Bio
Training & Certification
- Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TI-CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) — emotional regulation and distress tolerance
- Sand Tray Therapy
- Art and Expressive Therapies
- Relational Cultural Theory (RCT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Family Systems
Internship & Employment
- Friends of Youth, Intern Mental Health Counselor, Issaquah, WA, 2025–2026
- Puesta del Sol Elementary School, Art Appreciation Teacher, Bellevue, WA, 2015–2022
Education & Degrees
- MA, Mental Health Counseling, Saybrook University, 2026
- BA, Psychology and Communications, University of Missouri–Kansas City, 2000
- Certificate, Literary Fiction, University of Washington Extension
License
- WA DOH Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate MC70123808