I provide counseling to individuals, couples, and older teens.
Treatment specialization includes:
- Depression and Anxiety: If you are struggling with depression and/or anxiety, and often we see the two combined, you are not alone…and there is help. The first step is to determine what kind of depression and anxiety we are dealing with. To be depressed following a loss, whether it be a death, the end of a relationship, or job loss, is normal. What I look for in how to treat your depression is how long the depression has lasted and how it affects your daily functioning, and then we work on how to treat it. Anxiety is fear related and it can be situational or part of a deeper reason, such as from trauma. Much like depression, the key is to understand what is causing your anxiety, and then we work to treat it.
- Pornography/Masturbation Addiction, For Men and Women: In my work with women who are addicted to pornography and masturbation (the two often go together), I find that many of them have been sexually abused as children, and that the addition started about age 11 or 12. Many of my clients tell me that they are ashamed and feel very alone with their addiction. In fact, when I first started working with women who were addicted to pornography, I had a difficult time finding journal articles and other resources about women and pornography. I think this is because pornography addiction is largely thought to be a male problem. If you are struggling with an addiction to pornography and/or masturbation, please know that my office is a safe place to talk about your struggle and to work to be free of this addiction. Unlike addictions to alcohol or drugs, pornography’s impact on the brain is different, but it doesn’t have to control you.
- Abortion Counseling: Women and men who go through abortions understand the trauma that is often attached to this decision and the long-lasting guilt and grief. If you’ve experienced an abortion, please know that you will not be judged for the decision, but will find love and understanding as you also find healing.
- Couples Counseling: I love working with couples experiencing relationship problems and problems within their families. I am a fan of marriage, having been married almost 36 years and having raised my family, and I will work with you to help rebuild marriages broken by myriad problems.
- PTSD and Trauma: So much of the anxiety and depression I see in my clients is related to trauma, be it what we call “Big T” trauma – that which results from major trauma experiences such as war, rape, car accidents, abuse, etc., – or “Little t” traumas which are much smaller in their initial effect than Big T traumas, but over time can cause great impact on daily functioning. My trauma work often involves using EMDR, a proven therapeutic approach to helping people heal from trauma.
- Military Issues: I’m a veteran and I’ve been working with veterans for years and understand the issues that are unique to veterans and their families. I talk your language and your experiences.
- Grief Counseling: Grief can take a lot of different avenues – anger, depression, sadness, disconnecting from life – and everyone’s grief is different. But all grief counseling begins with giving you a safe place to talk, to cry, and sometimes just to sit with your pain for awhile. No matter which avenue your grief takes, I’ll journey with you through this.
- Work and Career Issues: I love helping people navigate work and career issues. These can be learning how to communicate your desires better, job stress, job changes, work relationship problems, and just frustration with the path you are on. Counseling is my fifth career so I understand.
- Stress Management: Wow, who doesn’t have stress in their life? Let me help you learn to manage your stress better.
- Life Transitions: I use this term to encompass a lot of different issues. My clients and I have worked through the death of a spouse or family member, a broken relationship, that move from young adulthood to adulthood, and the middle age crisis. A special area for me is working with caregivers and how life changes when a spouse or family member is chronically ill. I’ve been through this myself when my husband had a liver transplant. We all go through life transitions. The key is learning how to navigate them.
- The Incorporation of Christianity and Catholicism: As a graduate of Colorado Christian University and the Catholic Biblical School, I am trained in both the Christian and Catholic faith and how to incorporate faith into your counseling session. Not all of my clients desire to have faith brought up in their sessions, and that’s okay. But for those who do, having someone who is trained in how to do this, and who practices and understands the Christian faith is very important.
- Working with Catholic Men and Women: My Catholic clients choose me because I understand and practice Catholicism, and I adhere to the tenants of the Catholic Church, and they want a therapist who will not only talks the faith, but walks the faith.