I am here to walk alongside you. To share what I have learned in life, in both “chairs” – as a therapist as well as a human being who has successfully asked for help. Learning to ask for help as a therapist/client has offered me significant insight into what vulnerability means, in both chairs.
I am a person who identifies as a woman, a mom, an athlete, neurodivergent, a member of the recovering community, a friend and a family member in a multicultural family. All of these pieces offer different perspectives and have shaped my place in this world. These parts of me also inform the way I offer therapy.
My training and love of body-based approaches offer a unique perspective in working together with you.
At this point in my life, my capacity and development is much more intuitive than intellectual. Joining with you in this process, I will offer a deep understanding of your experience that offers you the safety and space to share your authentic self. To feel heard as well as gently guided, always with respect and appreciation for what parts you bring.
In my career, I have worked in residential treatment, child protective services, hospitals, emergency rooms, and outpatient therapy. I have also been certified as an EMT-D (NY) and an RYT-200. As for my credentials:
Becoming a therapist was not the plan for me. As a student interested in math and science, I entered a federal service academy in pursuit of a degree in engineering. Plunging into this new life left me unsettled and offered unexpected experiences. And I felt like I was losing myself.
I relied heavily on my brain and body’s abilities to get me through a difficult adolescence and early adulthood. Math and science were my places of respite from socializing, as well as sports. In the academy, I excelled and became an “Honor Plebe” during freshman year. And yet, life in the mid-1990s as a female midshipman was not easy.
Although the service academy offered amazing learning opportunities, it also taught me, experientially, a lot about unresolved trauma.
A counselor there offered me the space to share my concerns, fears and to even consider other options for life. My life. We did breathing exercises, to ground and recognize inherent strengths I (always) had. I learned about ways I’d never considered being, and respecting what my body was trying to tell me.
Leaving behind a family legacy of military service was hard, but the possibility of life as it was, was overwhelmingly more painful.
I was a crossroads in my life. Thankfully I began to listen to what I needed, then. I left that world, not without grief or a lot of deliberation. And I still did it because it was what I needed to do: for me.
In the years since leaving the service, I have returned, time and time again, to my body, in and out of my career as a therapist. In endurance cycling, EMDR, a 15 year yoga practice, vipassana meditation, psychedelic work and Somatic Experiencing. I’ve learned that our bodies never lie to us, we just have to learn how to listen.
Now, I’m here to help you find your direction, especially in the times when we are called to listen to our hearts.
Our hearts, our bodies, they know the right path for us. We have to learn how to listen. We’ve always inherently known how, we just have to remember. We remember or re-member together, gaining strength in recognizing we are more alike than different.
Reconnect to what brings joy, reconnect to your body.
In life, our hard wiring is to focus on what we have lost or at times failed to do well. Expectations we haven’t met. People who have moved on or left us. Dream jobs that didn’t work out. Attempting to think our way through analysis, we can’t move past these old hurts.
Truly, these approaches have offered me the space to become a more loving and centered mom and friend as well as a therapist. I have continued to appreciate and study different means of bringing the felt sense into my life as well.
We will work to create a plan to find the places in your life, and in your body, that will restore a sense of goodness in day to day life.
To offer you the capacity to make healthy choices, focusing on collaboration and communication, for you and those you hold dear. We will process past issues for your healing, as well as for the ones that came before you, and the ones that will come after.
My rates begin at $175 for a 50 minute session. I do not accept insurance – though, I can provide a superbill if you have out of network benefits.
Let’s get to know each other and see if my bottom up approach is a fit for your needs and goals.
Most people schedule their first therapy session less than a week after our free consult.
To create a space where you will feel respected, appreciated and empowered on your journey.
What you bring to therapy is as important as what I bring as your therapist. You will recognize my desire to work in collaboration with you, with empathy, trust and compassion.
I integrate bottom up approaches of Somatic experiencing, EMDR, Brainspotting, Mindfulness, Trauma informed yoga and other evidence based approaches such as Motivational interviewing and Narrative therapy.
Learn More About: Bottom Up Approaches – Anxiety – Trauma – Addictions – Bonnie
After filling out this form, you will be redirected to my online calendar where you can book a 30-minute Q&A call to see if my services are a fit for your needs.
