I’d like to tell you a bit about my professional and personal background, so you can have a better sense of who I am, where I’m coming from, and if I’m someone you would like to work with.

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My journey to becoming a psychotherapist has been untraditional. Psychotherapy, Self-Healing, and Emotional Intelligence were not words in my family’s lexicon. As a kid growing up in New York City, I learned to “stuff” my emotions. I studied philosophy at the University of Chicago in an effort to find “the Answer” to my confusion regarding the world and my place in it. My search for this elusive answer continued into my twenties—albeit in a different direction. For several years, I bummed around the USA in a sedan and lived on an old hippie commune in Northern California.

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In 2015, I moved to Tuscaloosa to attend a graduate program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. When I was nearly done with my program, I experienced my own mental health crisis. It was a terrifying time for me. Ultimately, the experience changed me for the better. It was here, in Tuscaloosa, that I learned to stop seeking outside myself to find answers to my internal fear, and to turn towards myself, with patience and with grace. Here, I learned how life-changing—and life-saving—good psychotherapy is. As I grew more comfortable with myself, I began to realize the truth in the poet Rilke’s words: have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.

 

After completing my MFA in Creative Writing, I entered UA’s Graduate School of Social Work with the goal of becoming a psychotherapist. I wanted to share the power of psychotherapy with others. During my two-year program, I had one baby and became pregnant with another! Today, I am blessed to have found a true home in Tuscaloosa with my husband, two children, two cats, one tripawd mutt, and many friends.

 

I honed my psychotherapy skills while working in inpatient settings for people with serious mental illness and for people with substance use disorders. I have worked with people struggling with addiction, trauma, self-esteem, grief, attachment issues, identity issues, diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, serious mental illness (major depressive disorder and schizophrenia), depression, and anxiety. I have a deep respect and compassion for individuals in all their messiness and beauty. 

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Thank you for hearing my story. Now, let’s listen for yours.