Thanks for being here! I am a licensed professional counselor recognized by the State of Michigan, as well as a registered SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner). I have a passion for working with late teens, young adult and adult women who have a desire to rewrite past experiences, and to create something different for their current and future selves.

I enjoy taking a holistic approach to counseling, also known as a bottom-up approach where we’re curious about the stories our body’s can hold. Somatic Experiencing (SE) was a three year training journey that created a different lens for my personal approach to life as well as my work. Instead of judging for example the way we fidget when we’re nervous, or shut down when overwhelmed, we become curious about those things and the purpose they might serve us or have served us in the past. A lot of us have experienced traumas when there was too much too fast for our nervous systems. SE allows us to slow down the process (and I mean actually slow things down in sessions) to care for a different piece of healing beyond just the narrative we might keep spinning on. This can look a lot of different ways from intentional movement in our bodies, to sometimes an integration of supportive touch for our nervous systems. I pace with you, and learn to be attuned with your specific nervous system and its needs over time.

I have completed a 200 hour therapeutic yoga teacher training, and enjoy teaching outside of the office in various settings. I also have completed trainings for Brainspotting and EMDR. These techniques can be helpful in various situations, for processing traumatic and difficult memories. Treatment approaches aren’t a one size fits all, so I enjoy having many of my own tools to pull from for each unique client situation.  

I grew up in the Holland area and moved down to Chicago for my undergraduate degree in Psychology. After moving back to West Michigan, I pursued a Masters at Western Michigan University in the Counseling Education: Marriage/Family Therapy program. I have been married to my husband since 2015, and we have two little girls that keep us busy. In my (limited) free time, I enjoy cooking, reading, hiking, yoga, researching new places to travel, drinking large amounts of coffee, and watching endless episodes of New Girl.