I am a licensed psychologist in the state of Georgia with over 20 years of experience working in the mental health field. Although I have experience teaching, writing, consulting, and conducting research, I now focus solely on providing therapy and education as my primary passions.
When I meet with clients, both therapy and teaching usually occur. I consider our work a collaborative process. As we work together to develop a full understanding of the issues you are facing, I will share my knowledge of different therapeutic and decision-making skills so that you will be able to incorporate them in your own life, ultimately becoming independent of therapy.
Therapy can be either short or long term, depending on what makes sense for your particular situation. My goal is for you and I to create a working relationship and we will consistently evaluate how well our process is going. Although there are many types of therapy, this ability to work together is the strongest predictor of you having a good outcome and I take that seriously.
For more on my background, I started working in residential treatment in 1993. Throughout my master’s and doctoral degrees I worked and continued to gain experience. I started seeing individual clients as part of my master’s degree in Professional Counseling, and continued with individuals and couples with my doctoral training. I completed my master’s and doctoral degrees at Georgia State University. My post-doctoral fellowship was at the University of South Florida, and Dr. David Rush supervised my provisional post-doc license when I returned to Georgia. Licensure as a psychologist requires passing a national exam, a state exam, an oral exam, and documentation of clinical experience. When I became licensed as a psychologist, I had already completed over 6500 hours of direct clinical work.
Throughout my career, I have been in leadership positions and understand the personal and professional opportunities and challenges this brings. Most recently, I served as the Executive Director of a clinical services program and supervised our team of therapists. Other stewardship opportunities include serving on the board of the Society of Consulting Psychology for eight years, co-leading the multi-year training seminar for my doctoral program, and a long record of managing others.
Over the past 10 years, I have been working directly with adolescents and their families on issues encompassing depression, anxiety and related challenges, mood disorders, unhealthy eating patterns, body image issues, substance abuse, family conflict, grief, loss, and trauma. I now have over 15,000 hours of direct experience helping people work through their issues. This history has honed my ability to listen carefully and intuitively. This strong sense of attunement and perception is why many of the people I work with say they feel understood and that I “get” them.
However, good therapeutic work goes beyond listening and understanding. Good therapeutic work helps you change your life for the better. My goal is to help you create the foundation that is strong enough to carry you into the future you want. In returning to a strong foundation, our process is likely to include working with your thinking patterns, emotions, choices you have, creating healthy relationships, and developing new behaviors.
