About
I'm still in the room. And I'm building something new.
I've been engaged in clinical work since 2010 — licensed since 2018. Most of that time was spent inside complex healthcare settings, working with veterans facing spinal cord injuries, chronic pain, and major life transitions. These are people who've been through things most of us can't imagine. And they still have to figure out what comes next.
I still practice. Every week, I sit with people who are struggling — and I see what happens when someone loses touch with what they care about. The impossible demands. The pressure to keep performing. The slow erosion of a life built around obligation. I've watched thoughtful people get so buried in what was expected of them that they forgot what they actually wanted.
That's what this work is for. Not everyone who needs that kind of clarity will walk into a therapy room — whether because of cost, stigma, or the simple fact that they're not in crisis. They just need a different kind of conversation. Coaching is that conversation. And for organizations, consulting is the chance to build systems where people don't have to choose between doing their best work and staying whole.
Why This Work
Therapy can't reach everyone who needs this.
My work spans three areas: coaching for people who've lost the thread, therapy for people living with chronic pain and disability, and consulting for medical practices that want to treat the whole person. Each one draws on the same clinical foundation — and the same conviction that the person in front of me already has what they need. My job is to help them find it.
Each path exists because a different kind of need goes unmet. Stigma keeps some people out of therapy. Cost keeps others out. And many people aren't in crisis at all — they're just quietly losing touch with what they care about, or living with a body that's changed in ways no one prepared them for, or working inside a system that's stopped supporting them. These are real problems that don't fit neatly into a clinical hour.
A gesture isn't a system. People who gave everything during that period deserved more than a free lunch — they deserved organizations built to actually sustain them.
Background & Training
The clinical foundation that shapes everything
My path into this work started early. I earned my BA in Psychology from Elon University, then a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Rollins College, where my training took me through drug rehabilitation, school-based prevention, and hospice care. I went on to complete my PsyD in Clinical Psychology with a health psychology focus at Pacific University.
From there, I spent three years specializing in rehabilitation psychology with a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland VA — immersed in chronic pain management and the acute and long-term aspects of sustaining and living with a spinal cord injury or disease.
I've been a staff rehabilitation psychologist, directed an interdisciplinary chronic pain program, taught as an affiliate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and supervised trainees at every level of training.
Along the way, I've published on women and disability through Oxford University Press, reviewed for the Rehabilitation Psychology Journal and the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, and received a national award from Division 22 of the American Psychological Association for my work developing a telehealth support group for women with spinal cord injuries.
I'm a Whole Health Champion, which means I don't just treat conditions — I think about the whole person. That perspective runs through everything I do, whether it's therapy, coaching, or consulting.
My Approach
The work is always the same. What drives you, and what's getting in the way.
Whether I'm working with an individual or advising an organization, I start from the same place: people aren't problems to be solved. They're capable adults who've gotten disconnected from something important. My job is to help them reconnect — not to fix them.
I draw from a range of well-tested methods and use them flexibly — whatever serves the person best. Some sessions are reflective. Some are structured. All of them are grounded in what the research says about real, lasting change.
The through-line is always values. The work gets honest about what's driving someone and what's draining them. Then it translates that clarity into real decisions — the kind that change how days actually feel, not just how they look on paper.
"Insight precedes change. Awareness creates choice. And humans are not problems to be fixed."