LET'S GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER!

WHY I CHOSE TO BECOME A THERAPIST:

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I have always had a deep desire to help people. I love working with a client to help them really heal from past hurts or finally find peace and contentment within themselves so that they can really enjoy their lives. Before I was a therapist I was a personal fitness trainer and I take the same principles and apply them to my work today. As a personal fitness trainer my clients wanted results! And whether or not they were succeeding was pretty easily determined by the scale or measuring tape or the way that one pair of super cute jeans fit them. So if I wanted to keep clients, I needed to help them see results. When I received my Master in Social Work and received my license to provide therapy independently I began to notice that the therapeutic world was very undisciplined. You could be a therapist that saw anyone and everyone from young children to the geriatric population and provided nothing more than a listening ear and some validation here and there. I would hear stories of people who had been in therapy for over a decade with the same therapist. That blew my mind! Therapy is meant to get people better. Not to help them maintain "just getting by". 

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BECOMING AN EMDR THERAPIST:

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I wasn't a therapist for very long before EMDR therapy started calling my name. I was working at a residential treatment facility for children deemed "unable to live in society due to mental and behavioral problems". Most of these children had tragic starts to their lives and felt horrible about themselves and felt the world was horrible. I felt helpless as a therapist with the only real power being to listen and enacting no significant change.  Then I was trained in EMDR and It was the answer I had been looking for. A short-term, scientifically based, measurable treatment model. I fell in love with it when I was trained and then I became committed to the model when I saw my clients get results time after time after time. I wasn't just making them feel good by validating them or being a "rent-a-friend". EMDR changed the way people perceived themselves and the world. It was true healing not a band-aid. 

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I have since moved on from residential treatment to outpatient therapy and finally private practice. Over the last decade I have honed my skills in EMDR going from a trained therapist to a Certified therapist to now a therapist that Consults others therapists and helps them learn and apply the model. I began my use of EMDR with traumatized children and have since expanded my use to adults struggling with depression, anxiety, OCD, eating disorders, adjustment disorders, thought disorders and personality disorders. I see people who have been significantly traumatized by life since early childhood and can be diagnosed Complex PTSD to people who just want to think and feel better in their lives. EMDR has the amazing capacity to heal and with symptom alleviation and measurable results. 

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EMDR THERAPIST GEARED TOWARDS ALL THINGS PREGNANCY AND MOTHERHOOD:

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As a new therapist back in the early 2000's I never new I would find myself passionately working with pregnancy, birth and motherhood issues. And when I became an EMDR trained therapist I didn't initially see how EMDR can help these populations. But motherhood forced me in this direction and I am so thankful. Personally as a Mom I have experienced loss due to miscarriage, infertility treatment,  birth trauma, having a child with medical problems. I experienced the craziness of natural birth and the assistance of medication during birth. I experienced postpartum depression and  I have experienced breastfeeding problems, exclusively pumping and just using formula. I believe that facing these issues gave me two choices - either learn how to do life well or just drown in it. EMDR personally helped me through all of it and it drove me to become trained in the treatment of perinatal and postpartum mood, anxiety, OCD and thought disorders and the treatment of motherhood stress. I am now a referred therapist for Postpartum Support International, Postpartum Progress and the Postpartum Stress Center in Philadelphia. I combine my specialties as an EMDR therapist and my personal and professional expertise in the treatment of perinatal, postpartum and motherhood issues to help women feel better. 

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BEYOND THERAPY:

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I admit that in the brief moments of silence in my life there is nothing I like more than listening to motivational speaker podcasts or studying self-improvement or therapy books. I find it so interesting. But when I am not working I get to watch four little people find their place in the world, I get to do it with my best friend, my husband Kevin. We are avid outdoors people, we hunt, hike, swim, ski, play sports and are actively involved in our Church. I strongly believe in my Christian faith, but I will not push it on my clients. I have committed to a daily practice of appreciating my life and finding joy and peace in it and I can honestly tell you that if you see me in moments where one of my babies is crying, another is throwing a fit and I can't remember if I had time to shower that day on the inside I feel peaceful and thankful and I can help you get there too!

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