I approach clients with warmth, empathy and openness, knowing that our patients come from all walks of life and with a variety of experiences, traumas, and difficulties they would like to address in therapy. Through frequent check-ins and opportunities for feedback, I encourage patients to lead the therapeutic process and communicate what’s most important to address in therapy, what they are interested in learning, what’s working and what is not working. It’s my belief that patient-led therapy leads to increases in both client empowerment and satisfaction with the therapeutic process.
A common reason that clients seek therapy is assistance with processing distressing emotions. My most important task with these (and all) clients is normalizing and validating all emotions as part of the human experience. I also enjoy being a companion in self-exploration if this is desired by the client. This typically includes connecting distressing thought and behavioral patterns to adverse experiences from both childhood and adulthood and providing tools for further awareness and integration as appropriate.
I seek to ensure there is balance between therapeutic self-exploration and real-life safety planning and intervention. These safety planning and intervention strategies can look like naming harmful behavior, providing education on intimate partner violence and other types of abuse and oppression, clarifying barriers to social, emotional and physical safety, connection to community resources and practicing empowerment-based skills like boundary-setting. These kinds of interventions are becoming increasingly important as more research is completed on how social factors influence health outcomes (social determinants of health). Additionally, we live in a society where survivors of all types of harm are frequently gaslit, and their experiences minimized, by both the people who do harm and by society as a whole.
It is my hope that my clients come away from our time together with not only a deeper understanding of themselves but with tools that they can continue to use and build on throughout their lives.
I was born in San Antonio, TX and raised in rural Pennsylvania. I have also lived in NY, VA and FL. I moved to Denver in 2016. I enjoy nature walks, gardening, plants, photography, writing, reading, singing, dancing, creating art, cooking, music, and going to concerts and shows.
Locations
303.752.5470Qualifications and experience
- Specialties
- Mental Health and Behavior, Clinical Social Worker
- Gender
- Female
- Languages spoken
-
English
- Education
-
Graduate
Florida State University (2016)
- Board Certification
-
Certification Agency Specialty Year CO Dept of Regulatory Agencies Licensed Clinical Social Worker 2021 - Clinical interest for patients
-
My clinical interests are PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, trauma, domestic violence/intimate partner violence, emotional abuse, narcissistic abuse, sexual trauma, substance use, grief and loss, adjustment to illness, and societal re-entry post incarceration, support for those with criminal justice involvement.
- Research interest for patients
-
My research interests are as follows:
- The connection between trauma, nervous system dysfunction and chronic illness
- IPV education as a public health campaign starting in grade school
- The connection between trauma and substance use
- The ethics of organ transplant approval in regards to oppression and social determinants of health - Insurance
- UCHealth strongly encourages you to consult with your health insurer to determine accurate information about your coverage and benefits for a particular health care service provided at a UCHealth facility. Read more here.