My Approach to Helping
I specialize in grief and loss (including grief groups), medical trauma, PTSD, anxiety and shame issues. I have over 20 years experience working in both the mental health field as well as hospice and palliative medicine. My work with clients is marked by curiosity and compassion. I believe that grief is something that cannot be fixed, but it can be navigated and supported. I serve my clients by providing education, empathetic listening, and strategies for coping with grief. If there are elements of trauma within one's experience, I use Lifespan Integration as a means help the brain rewire so that the triggers are no longer too activating.
Individual Grief Counseling, Group Grief Therapy and Grief Writing Group, Resiliency Toolkits for Healthcare Workers, and Lifespan Integration for trauma work.
Experience tells me that grief and loss can feel like we are dropped into an unknown land. If we have past caregiver trauma, where we witnessed a loved one in their dying process, sometimes our grief can be complicated by this traumatic experience too. Finding a safe place to talk, be heard, and find ways to ease the pain is what I do.
More Info About My Practice
Having worked as a mental health therapist for 20 years doing face to face work with clients, supervising counseling programsend of life programs in healthcare, and having a private practice, I have seen the importance of mental health as a foundation to who a person is and how they engage the relationships and life. As a hospice and palliative care spiritual counselor for 13 years, I have seen up close both the heart break of grief and loss and the joys and healing that result from the hard work of “working your grief.” I have been besides other clinicians who have struggled to keep their centeredness as they pour their lives into their caregiving for another. With training in both the mental health and spirituality fields, I see the work of therapy as focused not only on the mental and emotional well-being, but also on helping the individual find their centeredness, grounding, and sense of purpose as a human being. Having practiced as a therapist for 20 years, I believe that we grow through, and during, difficulty. Because of this, I see my role as helping another find healing and become a fuller version of themselves. I accomplish this through curiosity, kindness, and reflecting what I’m being shown. In many ways, I see my role as “one who walks alongside”.
I have lost loved ones by death and by choosing to let go of others by choice. I have seen up close how loss comes in various forms. I have also worked in the end-of-life field for 13 years, where I have seen the impact grief can have on a person. In this field, I began to actively seek out help and build strategies for my own grief as I grew connected to patients and families for whom I cared. Through therapy, attending regular community grief rituals, and developing my own personal practices for grief, I have found a path for better resiliency in healthcare.
I hold a Master’s in Counseling from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, a Master’s of Divinity as well, and am still enrolled in the school of life's hard knocks. While my training has provided me the tools to help others, I still see my work with clients as a place where I continue to learn.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
Medical Trauma, Caregiver StressDistress, Building Resiliency as a Healthcare Worker, Grief & Loss, Shame
