I completed my B.A. in Liberal Studies from Antioch University, Los Angeles. This broad, liberal arts education put me in contact with philosophy, art, literature, history, politics, sociology, and psychology–the ways in which we situate and express ourselves in the greater human story–in all its comedy and tragedy. I then leaned into empiricism and a more scientific approach with post-graduate research training in social and clinical psychology at the University of California at Irvine. I primarily focused on moral and political psychology–how we understand and make decisions about what matters to us most and how we communicate about those things with others in the online age. After a brief sojourn in a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology during the height of the pandemic, I decided to pause, pivot, and instead focus more explicitly on relationships and clinical work. I completed my M.S. at Colorado State University in Human Development and Family Systems with a focus in Marriage and Family Therapy. With three clinical rotations, live on-mirror supervision, and a cohort-based model, I was fortunate to receive a level of rigor in graduate clinical training that is becoming more and more rare. With this balanced perspective, I am attuned to how large-scale sociocultural patterns, family systems, and individual differences combine to influence how we navigate the painful experiences that bring us into a help-seeking position.
Right after graduate school, I helped found and staff a community clinic in Fort Collins that primarily serves Medicaid patients seeking outpatient psychotherapy services for an array of issues. I worked with adults, children, couples, and families for about two years in that setting before deciding to move fully into private practice. I have also worked in eating disorder treatment at the residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels with adolescents and adults. That experience, combined with many years of teaching yoga has given me a profound respect for the ways in which the body speaks when words fail. In addition to talk therapy, I also teach trauma-sensitive yoga as an adjunctive intervention for women with complex relational trauma. As a lifelong athlete, I believe the body not only communicates to us about our struggles but can also help move us through our pain toward more resilience, joy, and connection. Learn more about my work coaching athletes in principles of sports psychology and performance here.
I continue to engage in advanced trainings and certificates related to my primary areas of interest and practice.
