About Me

Ironically, I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be a therapist. I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be anything, honestly. The negative self narrative made it hard to even imagine let alone plan or dream.

I was abandoned as an infant. I lived through a failed adoption and bounced between messy relationships and even messier expectations of what family was supposed to look like. I was a runaway. I used drugs. I made mistakes, some small, some massive. And for a long time, I learned to survive by pretending I didn’t need anything or anyone.

I’ve lived the work I do. I show up real.

It started here. Abandonment became the story I was handed but NOT the one I chose to keep.

But that abandonment, that ache to be wanted, never really let go of me. It showed up in the choices I made, in the people I chased, in the ways I performed to be liked, accepted, or respected.

I became a mother early, and I became a single parent even quicker. I questioned everything….. my worth, my instincts, my decisions. I carried the weight of raising kids on my own while wrestling with unresolved pain I didn’t even have language for yet. There were days I held it all together and nights I cried on the bathroom floor after they went to bed.

In my early 20’s, I went through the police and corrections academy as a young mother. I chased a version of strength I could wear like armor. It gave me a purpose, but it also deepened my questions: What drives people to self-destruct? What do you do with the trauma you didn’t ask for? What about the damage you caused yourself? Why do parents hurt their children?

I raised my kids, first one, then three, mostly on my own. The hustle was constant. The weight was heavy. But so was the desire to understand what healing actually looked like. It wasn’t until my youngest started school that I finally returned to the classroom for myself. I earned my bachelor’s degree (criminal Justice) and then two master’s degrees (Psychological Research and Professional Counseling), every single one as a single working mom, doing homework at the kitchen table between laundry, dinner, baseball and karate.

This is what ambition with survival underneath looks like.

My need to be enough, smart enough, good enough, strong enough pushed me toward multiple degrees, certifications, and credentials. My perfectionism looked like ambition, but under the surface it was pure desperation for love and acceptance coupled with burnout. I know what it’s like to look capable on the outside and be breaking down in silence.

After earning my Master’s in Professional Counseling, I began working in community health and corrections right in the thick of trauma, survival, and systems that often re-traumatize the very people they serve. I saw firsthand how many people were hanging on by a thread. How significantly trauma, expectations, and negative self talk impact us. That’s when I knew it was time to build something of my own.

Since opening Strong Self Psychotherapy in 2021, I’ve specialized in working with individuals who are under constant pressure to perform and who often feel like they’re losing themselves in the process. I don’t do surface-level therapy. I help people regulate, reconnect, and rebuild from the inside out.

Military and first responder communities hold a special place in my heart, not just professionally, but personally. I’m a military daughter, a former military spouse, and the proud mother of two military service members and one police officer. I don’t just understand the culture, I live it, and I carry deep respect for the weight these roles hold.

If you serve or have served in the military or as a first responder, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service.