If there was one thing you wish people knew about the therapy experience who might be hesitant to try it, what would that be?
Therapy is a safe place for you. You can share everything you want or need to. All that you share is safe. Nothing you share with your therapist will be shared with others.
What do you view as a key component of the therapeutic relationship?
Honesty is the most important part of the therapeutic relationship. Honesty between a client and therapist allows for greater understanding of concerns, which then allows for better therapy, because it is aimed at the actual issues involved.
What was your path to becoming a therapist? What inspired you to choose this profession?
When I was younger, I had the benefit of working with a therapist who helped change the course of my family, by helping us help ourselves. This inspired me to want to do the same for others. I wanted to be able to pay forward the gift that that therapist gave to my family.
Specialties
Anxiety
Anxiety can mean nervousness, worry, or self-doubt. Anxiety disorder is a mental health disorder that entails excessive, repeated bouts of worry, anxiety, and/or fear.
Relationship Issues
Refers relationship issues with a partner or spouse. Can include issues related to relationship distress, relationship satisfaction, communication, intimacy, etc.
Addiction
Regular involvement with a substance or activity in a compulsive, hard to control way that often has harmful consequences. Often refers to substance use, but can include compulsive behaviors such as sex, gambling, or shopping.
Anger management
It's normal to experience anger at times, but for some, it becomes so frequent, intense, or difficult to control that it negatively affects their life. Anger management is a structured therapeutic approach toward reducing one’s anger to a point where more appropriate coping and/or conflict management skills are used. Beliefs and thoughts leading toward anger outbursts are explored while healthy coping and interpersonal skills are put into practice.
Family issues
Familial relationships can be the source of stress and emotional pain, even in the healthiest of situations. Painful interactions can range from irritation to resentment and lead to feelings of guilt, disappointment, and anger.
General Expertise
Loss/Grief
Grief is a reaction to an emotionally significant loss and often comes with symptoms of depression or anxiety. These symptoms can remain intense and last for a long time after a loss, making it difficult to move forward with a healthy lifestyle.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety or social phobia is fear of social situations or a fear of interacting with people other than close friends and family. Social anxiety can be persistent, intense, and debilitating, greatly affecting daily life.
Abuse/Survivors of abuse
Abuse includes any significant mistreatment along the lines of psychical, emotional, sexual, verbal, and neglect. Survivors of abuse may experience negative thoughts and feelings, flashbacks, distrust of others, social withdrawal, self-harm, and increased likelihood of developing mental health and substance abuse issues.
Adolescent mental health
Adolescent mental health focuses on adolescent-specific experiences including physical and cognitive development, social and environmental factors, sex, sexual identification and orientation, emotional processing, and substance use. Given the influence that parents/guardians have on adolescents, home life is a particularly important consideration.
Codependency
Involves a person sacrificing their needs to meet the needs of others. Their thoughts and actions center on a significant other, spouse, friend, or relative. Becomes an issue when relationships are unbalanced and unhealthy.
Fees
$120
First Session
$160
Family Therapy
$160
Couples Therapy
$120
Individual Therapy
Types of Therapy
Family Session
Couples Session
Individual Session
Clientele
Parents
Young Adults (18-24)
Adults (25-65)
Adolescents (13-17)
Treatment Approaches / Modalities
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Marriage and Family Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Training / Certifications
Certified Anger Management Specialist II
Certified Trauma Specialist
Certified in Addiction Counseling
Licensure
FL, LMFT, 53091
Education
Masters, Marital, Couple, and Family Therapy, Capella University
Bachelors, Human Resource Management, The George Washington University
Work History
My background has been focused around working with three general populations. The first population are families and couples. When working with this population, I work with how the couple or family members relate to each other, and help people understand what others are trying to say. This is because communication is often a significant issue within the couple or family. The second population are those with a history of substance use and trauma. With this population, I like to explore the history and then help to develop healthy coping skills for handling life on life's terms. Finally, the third population are those suffering with anger issues. For this population, we try and look at anger patterns, and learn how to break them and teach how to express things in a healthier way.
Location
1562 SE Village Green Drive, Suite 5, Port Saint Lucie, 34952, FL