Outside the therapy space, you can usually find me moving my body, coaching a fitness class, hanging with my dog, or heading off on a camping trip. I'm a big believer in fresh air, movement and the kind of conversations that happen around a campfire, which you will see reflected in who I am in the therapy space.

I have always been a "people person," as they say. I am chatty, curious, and a lover of going beyond small talk. When discussing who I am as a person and my role as a therapist with colleagues and friends, they shared very similar sentiments: that I was the type of person who would "go there". "There" being the deep parts, the scary parts, the awkward and unspoken parts of life. I found this fitting. I don't shy away from awkward conversations, and I am often the first to share an embarrassing story about myself, like the time I couldn't figure out the self-serve car wash, and the person behind me had to get out of their car to help. Or when I forgot to turn my car off while filling up with gas and drove away, mortified, convinced everyone thought I had stolen something. Apparently, I have a theme with cars. But when I think about this, my nature of wanting to disarm people and create a level playing field speaks a lot to who I am in the therapy space and how I hope to impact my clients and help them to heal old wounds, understand their patterns and create skills for a more meaningful and fulfilled life. I think my gift is in the vulnerability to say "I am just like you," full of flaws, embarrassing stories, and things that I wish were different about myself, but with that vulnerability comes the safety for others to share the deep parts of themselves. And know that there is no judgment.

I found myself in the mental health field primarily because of my passion for people and my fascination with the power of our minds, but I am also here because of my own story, one that is deeply human and emotionally rich, bittersweet like so many others. After losing my father to suicide, many things changed for me, but what stands out is my desire to make conversations about mental health as common as conversations about physical health, to destigmatize suicide, how dearly I hold people's stories and how important having a space to share these stories is for growth, healing, safety and well-being.

At the heart of it, human connection is the foundation of healing, and we offer small bits of healing to each other every day, often without even realizing it, but in therapy, this healing is amplified. Week after week, one hour at a time, we get to build safety. This is how I experienced therapy, and it is the heart of why I do what I do.