Many years ago I knew I would love to be a therapist but it seemed such an impractical idea for me.  I kept moving into jobs which were focused on the mission of helping others and protecting this great country we live in but they did not allow me to really work to build people up and restore hope.  After becoming more settled in my life, God opened a door for me that I could not walk away from and here I am, finally doing something I really love - loving people and helping them to find their way back to living a life which is beautiful and wonderful in all it's complexities. 

 

My idea of "RESTORATION"  came from a discussion I was having with a close friend, describing my burning desire to let people who are hurting know that they are okay and they are going to make it out of the darkness.  That they can have restored love and hope for a life worth living if the are willing to begin working on their house aka their soul.  My experience working with individuals in recovery is this: with or without a substance issue - we, as humans, are in recovery from life.  We are trying to manage grief... lost expectations, from a parent, a caretaker, a sibling, a spouse, a friend, or even a job.    In the midst of these very powerful emotions, we can still manage to skillfully endure hardship, surfing waves of emotions and continuing to navigate to our values.  We have a choice in how much we want to suffer.  We also have the choice to find ways to bring positives into our life.  To shore up our supports if you will!  Creating positive experiences in which we can be totally immersed is taking time to build a relationship with ourselves is crucial in creating a life worth living.  These are tenets of DBT and ACT - I not only teach it, I practice it in my life daily. 

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To learn more about DBT - please visit this link

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MY PERSONAL STORY:

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For those of you who need to know a bit more on the personal side of my life as a way to connect.  Here is a condensed version of me.  I graduated college in 1998 from Oklahoma State University and was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force.  I spent six years serving active duty and another three as a reservist.  I worked for a couple of large corporations after leaving the military then was presented the opportunity to become a Federal Law Enforcement officer.  I worked national security matters for 9 years before resigning to pursue counseling.  I attended Montreat College to obtain my M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.  I got married (for the second time) late in life and have one child who is the light of my life.  I chose the career change because I felt it was my calling and I wanted to be as present as possible to raise my daughter.

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I am a recovering mom of Postpartum Anxiety and OCD.  If you are a mom, parent, spouse, family member and you have someone in your life who hasn't stopped having the "baby blues" after two weeks, that person needs clinical help.  Please have them see someone.  It was one of the hardest times in my life because of so many turbulent emotions, guilt, shame, sorrow, - they all showed up. 

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I am a self-identified Life Survivor - I believe my parents did what they knew to do but most of us will raise our hand to the "who came from a dysfunctional family?" question.  It is never too late to restore the childhood dreams and the excitement each of us was born with - that thing making us get back on the bike in spite of all the falls and hits we kept taking while learning to ride.  I would love to be part of that process with you and would be honored to share in your restoration story.    

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It is hard to sum up anything in a few paragraphs but hopefully the one thing you can take away from reading this little blurp is that I truly believe in helping people find hope and joy in their life.  I know it is a mad, crazy world out there and it can also be lovely, challenging, and dynamic if we can find ways to cope more effectively and to become more mentally resilient.