What do you view as a key component of the therapeutic relationship?
I'm a firm believer that the most important component in therapy is your relationship with your therapist. I mean, if we don't like someone, we're not going to share our thoughts, yet alone our feelings. It's incredibly hard to be vulnerable, and it's basically impossible if we don't like who we're talking to.
Were there lessons in your professional or academic career that left an impression on you, and how has that informed your work today?
Some of the most important professional lessons I've learned have come from clients I've worked with. When I first started doing this work, I would hear clients tell me that it was so hard that other therapists didn't listen. Or would invalidate or minimize them. They would share how hard that was for them, and it was really heartbreaking to hear that people wanted help, that they were trying to get help, but the people who were supposed to help them weren't helping. I really tried to keep this lesson in the back of my mind, because I essentially didn't want clients to ever talk about me like that. In my work now, I try to have conversations with my clients about how I can improve. If there have been times that I've accidentally invalidated them, and what I did to cause that. I'd rather have these conversations so I can learn and grow, so I don't become ignorant and cause any harm that I'm unaware of.
How do you determine therapy goals with clients? What does that process look like?
When I'm working with someone, I'm trying to work myself out of a job. When people come to therapy, there's often an element of pain involved. We usually don't seek help unless we're in some kind of emotional pain, and I don't want people to feel that pain for so long that they feel like they need to be in therapy forever. I see it as my job to help people help themselves, so they feel confident that they don't need therapy. When we're looking at goals for our work together, I often approach it from the perspective of what people want to get out of therapy in order to feel like they don't need it anymore. This is a conversation we have together, because it's their therapy, not mine. When these goals are met, I like to review this progress, because it's something to be celebrated. But I also want to have a conversation about what next steps they want to take. We can stop therapy, or we can create new goals to work towards. Again, it's a conversation we have together.
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.
Work Stress
Workplace issues are a common source of stress and can include interpersonal conflict, communication problems, gossip, harassment, discrimination, low motivation and job satisfaction, performance issues, and poor job fit.
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.
Medical professionals' mental health
Many medical professionals have extremely difficult jobs. When the result of one’s work is a matter of life or death, stress is typical. Medical professionals’ mental health is oftentimes impacted by experiencing vicarious trauma, working long hours, feeling underpaid or unappreciated, and believing that the well-being of others is more important than their own. This may lead toward distress, compromised performance, resentment, poor mental and/or physical health, and burnout.
Trauma
Trauma is the result of experiencing a perceived, extremely distressful event. Although the stress threshold for each person differs, meaning that each person considers and experiences trauma differently, it is an event that tops one’s threshold. It exceeds one’s ability to cope or emotionally process. Symptoms may include shock, anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, feeling disconnected, mood swings, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts.
General Expertise
Careers
Designed to help people choose, change, or leave a career at any stage of life. Careers are often wrapped up in people’s perceived identity, therefore, any change can cause anxiety and/or depression.
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the degree to which a person feels confident, valuable, and worthy of respect. Feeling low self-esteem can influence overall well-being and be linked to anxiety and/or depression.
College & graduate student issues
Issues arising from being in a new environment or away from home for the first time. College-aged kids have the highest rates of mental illness, suffering things like stress, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and substance abuse.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessive compulsive disorder entails a distressful pattern of recurrent thoughts and repetitive behaviors. Obsessions are oftentimes unreasonable thoughts and fears that plague one’s mind to the point of compensatory behavior. This occurs despite logically recognizing the problem. The cycle is seemingly endless and instils feelings of hopelessness/helplessness. Severity of the condition varies but tends to begin gradually, becoming more intense under stress.
Panic attacks & panic disorder
Panic attacks are acute conditions in which one experiences an intense bout of anxiety out of seemingly nowhere. This oftentimes stems from a perceived rather than actual threat. Symptoms may include heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, and shortness of breath. Panic disorder involves regular frequency of panic attacks (two or more) with a fear of experiencing more in the future.
Fees
$200
Individual Therapy
Types of Therapy
Individual Session
Clientele
Young Adults (18-24)
Adults (25-65)
Treatment Approaches / Modalities
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Positive Psychology
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Training / Certifications
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Licensure
ID, LCSW, LCSW-38078
IA, LISW, 096945
ND, LCSW, 5925
Education
Master of Social Work, Northwest Nazarene University
Work History
I have experience that ranges from inpatient psychiatric hospital work to community mental health work.
Location
800 W Main Street, Suite 1460, Boise, 83702, ID