Background and Approach

A woman with long, curly dark hair and light skin standing outdoors with a blurred natural landscape in the background.

My path meandered its way to you

I’ve always followed my heart which has led me on an unconventional yet gratifying career trajectory.

I grew up under the redwoods on the Mendocino Coast. As a child with an active and wild imagination, I spent many hours engaged in magical play under the canopy; my connection with the natural world is rooted in the fluffy understory of the redwood circle. From there I grew into an activated young adult drawn to the powerful relationship of humans within the natural world.

I’ve explored various avenues that tend to that interplay. I’ve worked with youth in non-profits, served in the Peace Corps working alongside the Ngabe-Bugle indigenous community in the rural Panamanian interior, earned a teaching credential and spent a decade as a garden educator working in an idyllic outdoor setting, and developed and managed programs with the School Garden Network of Sonoma County. I have always found meaning by helping people develop empowerment within and build connection with each other, with the food they eat, and within the natural systems that provide life and shelter. I have witnessed the profound beauty that awakens in people when they soften and seek vulnerable connection with nature.

My own inner world has also navigated these similar peaks and valleys, storms and sunrises. Community, friendships, family, the natural world, and personal practices have guided me through in an ongoing evolution as a joyful, rooted, and deeply feeling person wanting to thrive in an oftentimes hostile and aggressive world.

A sense of awe and wonder with this process led me to pursue a Masters Degree from Sonoma State University in Clinical Mental Health Counseling so that I could expand and deepen how I invite others into these powerful relationships with nature, with others, and within their own personal awakening.

I serve youth, families and adult individuals who are struggling to find or maintain their sense of joy, belonging, and wonder in the world.

My Approach

Healing can take many forms. Some people heal by speaking from the core of their hurt and longing. Others move and feel their way through healing. Many seek a relationship with nature to reflect, contain, and ameliorate their pain. Others express sorrow and healing through artful expression. Some turn to dreams and active imagination: symbolic expressions of the individual and collective unconscious. I believe healing can integrate some of all of the above and so much more…

In “clinical terms”, I work from a relational, ecopsychological, somatic, and psychodynamic perspective while drawing from and weaving in case-appropriate techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy, narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy and internal family systems.

I also view the human condition through a feminist theoretical lens. I take a non-pathological view of suffering; I deeply believe that “the personal is political” and address real-life factors that contribute to distress including socio-economic injustices, racism, gender and sexual identity inequality, and oppressive systemic beliefs and policies that inhibit our personal freedoms and lead to chronic stress and dysregulated internal systems.

While my background and education provides a container for engaging in the work, you are the expert in your life. I will meet you exactly where you are and we will work in connected partnership to support your goals and facilitate the change you long for.