My background has provided me with a great deal of lived experience that can be drawn upon when building relationships with clients. I have had the privilege of having known, grown up with, and cared deeply about people from a variety of backgrounds, races, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, as well as having spent the last 20 years proudly bearing witness to my own child’s experience of discovering, evolving, and becoming a vocal member of and advocate within the LQBTQ+ community, of which I am an unwavering ally. I have had exposure, either personally or through supporting a loved one, to the complexities of mental illness, suicide, addiction, sexual abuse, special needs, chronic pain, grief, estrangement, dissociation, mood disorders, autism spectrum disorder, AD/HD, children and adolescents, and the struggles of first-generation immigrants.

My area of focus is trauma, and I have immersed myself in studying the various modalities for treating trauma, earning a CCTP (Certified Clinical Trauma Professional) credential, a Trauma Certificate from the NASW, a certificate in Psychological First Aid from John Hopkins University, and am currently in the process of working toward certificates in Trauma Response and Crisis Intervention, and Violence Against Women: Clinical Work with Survivors from Rutgers School of Social Work. It is also my intention to pursue training in EMDR, and beginning in August 2023, I will begin a 7-month Traumatic Stress Studies Certificate Program led by Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score) through his Trauma Research Foundation.

I have a deep passion and respect for the power of therapy to change lives, which I have been privileged to witness in my work with clients, as well as in my personal life, both through the consistent use of therapy as a part of my own self-care, as well as having spent the last 20 years raising two children with special needs. I place a high value on authenticity, empathy, and self-awareness, both for myself and my clients as individuals, but also as a critical part of the therapeutic process (I also take advantage of the healing power of laughter whenever possible!). I aim to normalize and validate my clients’ experiences without judgment, and above all, to provide the most basic of human needs: to feel seen and heard.