My background includes formal education, personal experience, clinical experience, teaching, and mindfulness practice — all of which help me to offer a holistic approach to parenting and wellness.

Education

I graduated with my Master’s degree in Counseling in 2006 and with my PhD in Educational Psychology in 2013, both from Arizona State University.

Since graduate school, I’ve pursued regular continuing education with leaders in the fields of trauma, interpersonal neurobiology, family systems theory, mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, Eastern philosophy, and overall wellness.

Experience

I’ve worked as a child and family therapist in home, school, healthcare, and office settings since 2006.

I worked in community mental health for eight years. In these settings, I with pregnant mothers, newborns, postpartum mothers, children, and caregivers as a therapist in a busy pediatric clinic. After this, I worked as a therapist for children under the age of five in the foster care system. In these positions, I trained extensively in the areas of Infant and Toddler Mental Health, pre-and post-natal care, and in supporting parents and caregivers to help children cope with and heal from trauma, anxiety, and major life disruptions.

In 2013, I opened my private practice. I began working with children and their parents and now work exclusively with parents of children under age seven. I hope parents to heal and deepen their relationships with their children and to help their children cope with things like anxiety, behavior issues, and trauma through the use of therapeutic parenting approaches.

Specialization

I specialize in:

  • Supporting parents as they help their infants, toddlers, and children throughout critical phases of development

  • Issues related to adoption, trauma, bonding, and attachment

  • Behavioral problems, tantrums, meltdowns, yelling, and ‘not listening’

  • Anxiety

  • Social and emotional development

  • Relational trauma

  • Breaking unhealthy patterns of relating to and interacting with each other

  • Breaking patterns of intergenerational trauma and replacing these with healthy ways of relating to each other in family systems

Approach

I use strengths-based, collaborative, integrative approaches informed largely by the study of interpersonal neurobiology.

I incorporate aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, interpersonal process therapy, and humanistic approaches into my work, as well.