You are probably most interested in whether or not I will be a good therapist for you. The fit and rapport between us is something we assess on an ongoing basis as treatment begins and unfolds. I hope to share with you a sense of what it is like to sit with me in the therapy room and tell you a little more about my background to help you determine if reaching out feels right.

I am engaged. I am not a bobble head. You seek the services of a professional not because I am solely a good listener, but also to bring to bear the knowledge and experience I have to help you change, grow, and heal. If I did not offer meaningful, evidence-based input, you would do just as well talking to a kind friend, a dog, or even a nicely painted wall. I am appropriately forthright and genuine, attributes that allow me to provide feedback in a manner that is both believable and easy to receive.

While I am an active therapist, it is unlikely that I would speak more than you in a given session and I am not likely to assign you worksheets as homework. What I will do is be present and engaged with you and your concerns and provide reactions, feedback, and prompting questions to help you resolve what you seek to resolve.

Every therapy relationship - like regular relationships - is different. Your unique self will bring out different aspects of me and together we will develop our own pattern. I can promise you my attuned presence and investment in the change you would like to see for yourself. Though I have not met you, I am certain you possess the capacity to live a life you can find meaningful, even after years of trying and hurting.

The work that I do is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an empirically supported treatment with coherent philosophical and theoretical bases for working with a broad range of human concerns. ACT has a somewhat unique way of understanding how language affects our mood and behavior. Sometimes this may mean our therapy work involves approaching your thoughts and feelings in ways that seem silly or strange. As we work together and your relationship to thinking and feeling starts to shift, you may feel temporarily confused or curious. You are always invited to ask about why we are doing what we are doing, though sometimes I may encourage you to sit with aspects of the confusion or strangeness, as your own reckoning with that experience is often itself helpful.

I am licensed as a Psychologist in North Carolina (#5893) and am authorized to practice remotely to PSYPACT participating states (APIT 14668). I graduated from The University of North Texas with a PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2014. My doctoral internship was at SUNY University at Buffalo Counseling Services and I completed a post-doctoral fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center. Before moving into private practice, I spent a little over five years as Assistant, then Associate, Director at University of Houston-Clear Lake Counseling Services as the Training Director for a doctoral internship accredited by the American Psychological Association. I began working in private practice in January 2021.