Who I am
Experience
Who we are and what we have experienced as individuals helps us to offer compassionate, uniquely effective, and individualized care as clinicians. Many people facing ordinary life problems first met me as owner/operator of Moravian Meadows, Equine Assisted Growth and Learning (EAGALA) -- where horses contributed in significant ways to the healing offered there. I presently grow and learn as I walk alongside clients both in my private practice and as a crisis consultant in the Emergency Room. My in-home therapy (ARMHS) clients encouraged me to go on for my Master's in Counseling (Bethel University). I also credit patients I worked with on the inpatient Mental Health Unit with contributing to who I am as a clinician. Being a wife and mother of four contributes significantly to who I am and how I practice as a professional clinician.
Your Story: Narrative Therapy
Your story is unique! My appreciation for the importance of story began in West Africa living among a people with no written language. While all therapy involves the telling of your story, Narrative Therapy has a unique approach. Our focus together will be to help find healing and hope as you reprocess your memories. You will rediscover or become aware of inner strengths. We achieve this together by sharing a neutral, safe space.
In Narrative Therapy, the events that occur over time in a person’s life are viewed as stories, some of which stand out as more significant than others. The Narrative therapist views a client’s life as multi-tiered and full of insights. The therapist does not act as the expert, but rather helps clients see how they are the experts regarding their own life. There are buried stories that can be rewritten/co-authored and woven into the ongoing and future story of their lives.
My Promise to You
I promise to be there for you fully each session we share. Our goal together is to help you grow from your struggles, heal from your pain, and move forward to where you want to be in your life. Hope that life can be and is better as you understand it differently will be an outcome we strive for. Clients I have worked with have described me as gentle, compassionate, insightful. They have reflected that I am also direct and honest in my approach. I not only come alongside them but often invite family members into sessions for reconciliation, healing, and growth. I believe hope is important because it can make the present troubling time less difficult to bear. With hope that tomorrow will be better, we can more easily endure suffering today. I can promise you that when you do not have hope I will have hope for you and will hold that until you own it for your very own. “Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.” -Thomas Aquinas