I offer compassionate, engaged, relational and transparent therapeutic services where we are all encouraged to contribute to and impact the course of therapy. As a part of your team, I will be present to consistently promote mindful understanding, reflection, worthiness, healing and thriving. I have been a practicing therapist since 2015 and the following are some of my experiences and styles that I bring to the therapeutic relationship:

• I received a Masters in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 and have attended many conferences, workshops and trainings by universities, foundations, and from the brilliant and creative people of my community. I find learning in a variety of environments, including especially from the individuals I work along side, to be key for my growth and am committed to this throughout my whole life.
• I have experience with trauma and resiliency. I have taken and given trainings on trauma, and have worked alongside survivors of intimate partner violence, unhoused peoples and many others who know deeply the impact of trauma. I work therapeutically with people who have experienced challenging and/or traumatic childbirth. In relation to trauma and healing in the nervous system, working towards resilience and healing with somatics, I have trained with the Community Resilience Model; Peter Levin of Somatic Experiencing; Amber McZeal of Decolonizing the Psyche; and Full Embodiment, in advanced strategies for working with sexualized trauma and sexuality somatically; and others.  I have received a Somatic Attachment Therapy Certificate through The Embody Lab. I am trained in and practice EMDR, a long standing trauma treatment therapy.
• Within relationships, I use Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT). I was trained by Sue Johnson, who created a model for relationship therapy that embraces the impactful role of attachment theory. I am LGBTQIA+, kink, and polyamorous aware and affirming.
• Being a DONA trained birth doula since 2010, and a DONA trained postpartum doula since 2015, I have a variety of perinatal experiences, as well as assisting in healing challenging or traumatic births. I have an informed perspective as to how pregnancy, attempts at pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, birth, new children and shifting family dynamics have effects on individuals, relationships and whole families. I have trained healthcare professionals and birth support people in supporting LGBTQAI+ people through their perinatal experiences.
• I have practiced therapy with individuals who are in jail. In that context, and within others, I have worked with people who experience negative impact from substance use while using a harm reduction/benefit maximization lens.
• I have attended trainings with the Climate Psychology Alliance and have a keen interest in working with and supporting people with climate emotions, climate distress, and solastaliga.
• I am supportive of healing and moving with grief and loss and all the many different forms it takes. After running support groups through the now defunct Good Grief Center for three years, I continue to be a grief support group facilitator for people with different kinds of losses. I have been trained as a death doula and am very interested in compassionate death care.
• I am understanding of illness, (chronic) pain and disability; the cultural context, and the significance on a person and in relationships.
• I have received training in Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ExRP or ERP) for OCD from Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at The University of Pennsylvania.
• I have received training in and center the Relational Cultural Therapy model, where empathy, relationships and meeting a person where they are at and recognizing the importance of their environment are all key.
• With knowledge from a psychedelic integration training with Fluence, I can support clients to best prepare for and digest their psychedelic experiences, also from a harm reduction/benefit maximization lens. I do not provide any access to the actual psychedelics or referrals, as that is currently illegal.
• Slightly separate from my therapeutic life, and still related, I have been trained and practicing conflict resolution and mediation since 2009, which offers insight into moments of conflict stress. I have particular interest in restorative and transformative justice. I have facilitated many (200?) meetings, workshops, classes, trainings, retreats and group processes since 2008. Mostly these have focused on justice work and relational dynamics. This has given me understanding of group, work, organization, and organizing processes and the impact on individuals. I currently do most all of my mediation, conflict transformation and facilitation practices within The Sacred Ground Collective.
• I am rooted in social justice and community organizing. I have a focus on promoting racial justice, health care justice, disability justice and supporting those who are incarcerated. I am a white ciswomen working with an intersectional feminist approach and from a systems perspective (basically: it’s not you, it’s the systemic devaluation and violence we are subjected to). While I live and practice in what is now known as Pittsburgh, PA, I must acknowledge that this land has been and continues to be the unceded lands of many indigenous stewards, many of whom were violently displaced or brutally killed, from the following tribes: the Adena, the Hopewell, the Monongahela, and later by other displaced peoples of the Delaware, the Shawnee, the Haudenosaunee and the Osage. Colonization continues as does native sovereignty and the fight for its recognition and justice.