Balanced Awakening specifically serves female-identified folks seeking psychotherapy.

Welcome! I am so happy that you are taking this step towards healing and growth! I want to offer immense encouragement as you begin your journey of self-understanding. It’s my personal belief that all humans have the power to grow and heal, but sometimes we get lost or stuck on this journey. It can feel overwhelming and disheartening when we find ourselves stuck back in familiar (perhaps uncomfortable) places we’ve already been. That’s okay! It’s a part of healing. It’s my belief that this often occurs because we have memories, feelings, or needs that have gone unacknowledged or pushed aside. Therapy is a powerful place where we create insight into these patterns and find relief to live a more fulfilling life.

As a therapist, I value safety and collaboration within therapy, and empower clients to always prioritize their safety. I believe an important factor to establishing trust is authenticity and transparency, which I uphold with warmth and non-judgment. As your therapist, we will reflect on past experiences, emotions, and relationships so that you can understand more deeply who you are and what it is that you as an individual need in order to heal. This process alone can often feel deeply meaningful. Once this has occurred, we will begin to explore new ways for managing distress and for establishing meaningful connections with others. The ultimate goal of our work together will be to support you in living a more authentic and balanced life, in whatever unique way this looks for you!

I enjoy working with individuals with a wide variety of concerns including relationship concerns, family-of-origin concerns, parent-child dynamics, identity development or exploration, trauma-related difficulties, low self-worth, and life transitions/adjustments. I am especially interested in working with individuals who hold marginalized identities and experiences of discrimination from a social justice framework.

Experience
I earned my doctorate in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and worked extensively with college-aged and non-traditional college-aged populations throughout my early training career. I completed my internship and post-doc at Iowa State University. Before coming to Balanced Awakening, I worked as a staff psychologist at University of Iowa. I have also provided supervision and training to doctoral-candidate graduate students.

I have extensive experience offering both brief and long-term therapy to individuals with a wide variety of ages, identities/intersecting identities, and presenting concerns. I practice from an integrative approach, meaning I utilize an array of therapeutic approaches. Some therapies I have expertise in include: Self-Compassion, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Interpersonal/Psychodynamic Therapies (Interpersonal Process Therapy, Relational Cultural Theory), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, Trauma-Informed, Somatic/Bodily Healing, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

In addition to therapeutic services I have completed an array of research on domestic violence, and I have also provided training in dynamics of power and privilege, white fragility, and social justice oriented mental health practice.