As a clinician and mom of two kids, I have found genuine passion and purpose in walking alongside families in some of their hardest moments to find healing. I was fortunate to identify the calling to counsel as a teen, and have worked diligently since to provide the best services possible to the families in my care. I firmly believe that I cannot ask my clients to do the hard work of processing their trauma without holding myself to the same standard, and have worked diligently to engage in trainings to provide intentional, evidence-based treatment modalities. 

In 2011, I graduated from Rogers State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science- Psychology, and went on to attain a master’s degree in Community Counseling from Oklahoma State University in 2013. Since becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, I have worked in school-based and community-based settings to engage with children and families in experiential and play therapy techniques, as well as providing trainings for foster/adoptive parents and other clinicians. With the majority of my work experience being within the foster/guardianship/adoption triad, I have a firm understanding of “being with” families in some of their most difficult moments. To best meet these needs, I have been trained as a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner and Educator, a Circle of Security facilitator, and in Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I am also highly trained in utilizing play therapy techniques and in infant mental health, often utilizing these skills simultaneously to engage with very young children and their families to address trauma or attachment- related needs. 

One of my biggest passions as a therapist is to walk families through Circle of Security trainings where they can identify their met and unmet needs from their own childhood experiences and begin to bridge the gap to create security in the relationships with their own children. Not only does Circle of Security provide the parents with a map to creating secure attachments with their own children, but it can also provide caregivers in multiple settings insight into creating security in their classroom, church preschool, etc. Watching parents develop insight through identifying how their present behaviors are being impacted by the “shark music” of their former experiences and then being able to develop new patterns of behavior and secure attachments with their own children has been one of the biggest joys of my life. 

When I am not at the office, I am likely happily at home with my husband playing with our two children or reading a good book. I am highly active in my church community through volunteering my time within the children’s ministry, as well as engaging with our faith community to provide resources for the families in need.