My journey to becoming a counselor started when my parents separated and eventually divorced when I was in high school. I felt lost and uncertain. I was looking for help, but didn’t know where to find it. In college I was involved with campus ministry and found connection and belonging that led me to Seminary and pastoral ministry.

I got married and after 4 years in the local church, I began to feel uncertain once again. I found my true calling in ministry through counseling couples and individuals that were in transition and struggling. I went back to school and began my practice as a therapist in 2010.

I began in community mental health and eventually made my way into private practice. Along the way I had 3 children, moved several times, and eventually landed in California during the pandemic. Once again, I found myself in a period of transition and uncertainty. This time the uncertainty was from a deeper place within me and took me down a path of personal rather than professional transformation.

From a young age I struggled with body image, like most of the women in my family. I tried every diet and exercise program to “fix” my body and feel acceptable, but nothing worked. I found a program called Truce With Food developed by Ali Shapiro that helped me to finally make peace with my body and embrace the uncertainty that I came to discover was transformation in disguise. I learned that the discomfort that I attributed to my body was really about feeling inadequate and I tried for years to manage the inadequacy with diets and exercise, only to feel more inadequate when they didn’t work. I learned it is a viscous cycle that kept me stuck in a binge then restrict cycle that made life harder physically and emotionally.

Truce With Food helped me break my cycle and now I am able to help others break their cycle of anxiety, depression, and self-loathing and embrace the abundance that comes from truly accepting yourself. I am passionate about helping others identify and embrace their struggle and guide them through the transformation.

We all need help sometimes. I know I would not be where I am without the many people that supported me through those periods of uncertainty and transformation, and I would be honored if you allow me to be that person for you.