Are there any recurring themes or issues you’ve noticed as you treat people in your area of specialization, and how has this insight guided your approach?
My experience has led me to believe that most maladaptive behavior is rooted in childhood abandonment, resulting in attachment injuries. These injuries lead to insecure attachments in adult relationships that are multigenerational and repetitive for the individual. I have found that attachment injuries, especially those suffered in childhood, are the deepest wounds. These wounds left unhealed and unexpressed do psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual damage that lasts a lifetime. The result of emotional abandonments is unexpressed, repressed, and or denied feelings. It is these unexpressed and invalidated feelings that are the cause of most problematic behaviors. Denied feelings lead to reactive behaviors. When emotions are acknowledged and validated, one can choose how to act in the situation bringing fulfillment and happiness. This belief has led me to focus on post-traumatic personal injures that need to be healed by giving these denied feeling voices and validation.
What do you think is the biggest barrier today for people seeking care?
I think the biggest barrier for those seeking therapy is the fear of being judged. I have had many clients tell me that it was not what they expected after they began therapy. They thought the therapist would point out everything they were doing wrong. Instead, they told me they found it is a self-affirming process that helped them see their strengths and assisted them in figuring out what they wanted and how to accomplish that for themselves. I hope people will see that therapy is a process that enables them to see the things that are keeping them stuck in self-defeating behaviors and finding new ways to meet their needs that lead to fulfillment and happiness. The therapist's role is to guide and support them through this journey. It is my journey in therapy that led me to want to be a therapist because it works. We all have issues, and we can all use a guide to help us sort them out.
How do you determine therapy goals with clients? What does that process look like?
Therapy is a collaborative process. I believe that the client is the expert in their life, and it is their choice where they want their life to go. I think fostering change starts with believing in the clients and their ability to grow. However, when clients come to therapy, they have lost faith in their ability to make things better. My job is to give them that hope and the tools to reach their goals. My role is to make change seem possible and create a safe place for the individual, couple, or family to achieve their goals.
Specialties
Relationship Issues
Refers relationship issues with a partner or spouse. Can include issues related to relationship distress, relationship satisfaction, communication, intimacy, etc.
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.
Attachment issues
Children that experience parents and/or guardians that are avoidant, ambivalent, or resistant from an early age, may develop attachment issues. This can manifest as difficulty forming or maintaining friendships, romantic relationships and empathetic bonds throughout life, as well as other issues.
Couples
Provides couples therapy/counseling
General Expertise
Depression
Depression often causes people to feel sad, empty, or hopeless, and can cause a lack of interest in life. It can also affect a person's thinking patterns and physical health.
Relationship Issues
Refers relationship issues with a partner or spouse. Can include issues related to relationship distress, relationship satisfaction, communication, intimacy, etc.
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.
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.
Bipolar disorder
Characterized by alternating symptoms of depression and mania. During more extreme episodes, depression may lead to the point of suicidal ideation and attempts while extreme bouts of mania are marked by impulsive behavior, lack of sleep, elevated esteem, and even psychosis.
Fees
$120
First Session
$130
Couples Therapy
$120
Individual Therapy
Types of Therapy
Couples Session
Individual Session
Clientele
Parents
Adults (25-65)
Seniors (65+)
Treatment Approaches / Modalities
Attachment-Based Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Family Systems Therapy
Gestalt Therapy
Marriage and Family Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Relational Therapy
Training / Certifications
CPCS
The 10 Core Competencies of Trauma, PTSD, Greif and Loss Evidence-Based Trauma Treatment and Interventions
The Healing Power of Emotion Attachment Based Psychotherapy
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional
Licensure
GA, LMFT, MFT001363
CT, LPC, 1175
Education
MFT Marriage and Family Therapy, Southern CT. State University
Ph. D. Marriage and Family Therapy, Northcentral University
Work History
I have had the opportunity to work with many people of different races, cultures, gender and sexual orientation, ethnicities, and religious beliefs, which has enriched my life. I have worked in the area of developmental disabilities in Nebraska, the mental health department, and an Alternative to Incarceration Unit with domestic violence offenders and domestic violence victim services in Connecticut. I developed a domestic violence program that included offender treatment as a victim's services in Arizona and recently expanded a domestic violence victims services program in Georgia. I received my Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy while in Connecticut and Licensed Professional Counselor in 2000. I complete my Ph.D. in 2018 and now provide therapy for victims of domestic violence and their families and supervise interns and associate therapists. What I have learned is while everyone is unique, people are more alike than different. Everybody wants to mean and matter, be believed and respected, be loved, be happy, and to make a better life for their children. We all are just meeting our needs the best way we know. However, sometimes the things we learned growing up do not help us do this in ways that are beneficial to us and our relationships. This is where therapy can help. I know it saved my life. It is the reason I became a therapist because it works.
Location
Remote Therapy, Hartwell, 30643, GA