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The Bottom Line

     I (she/her) deeply love being a therapist. In no other scenario am I more awake and utilized. Transformation and human courage get to be the landmarks of my daily landscape. My intellectual curiosity has an endless horizon which increases in depth and complexity the further in I travel. A lifelong tendency towards fierce protectiveness gets to love and advocate for beloved fellow humans. The human need to feel connected to something stunningly grand, beautiful and, ultimately, mysterious gets regularly satisfied. My work allows me to develop my faith and reliance on intuitive, instinctual, bottom-up knowledge which makes a space for new and surprising information to form my concepts - keeping them alive, evolving and vital. I get to witness the incredible bravery and goodness that is at the core of every single person I work with. I laugh a lot too! Ultimately, I get to commit myself to worthy work that is sometimes like being forged in a blast furnace but always gives me a way to make myself a gift to this world, as best as I am able. I am deeply thankful to all my clients for their teachings but equally so for allowing me to give.

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     At the very core of all that I study, strive for, fight for and love, my main compelling force, is to embrace and advocate for that which is exiled - exiled from our psyches, from our culture, and from our conscious awareness. My deepest instincts tell me that these cast-out, isolated, and scorned parts are the most precious and absolutely necessary elements of our health and vitality - both personally and culturally. Our work together will be constantly informed by my dedication to welcoming all of ourselves into belonging.

    "One does not become conscious by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."   -C.G. Jung

    My Professional Training

    (*This list is not professional horn tootling. You will be spending a lot of time, resources, and vulnerability with me and I believe that you deserve to know how I have chosen to focus and refine my professional toolkit. This list is in chronological order.)

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    • MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute with an emphasis on Depth Psychology.

    • Jung on the Hudson: Trauma and the Self - Dr. Allan Schore and Donald Kalsched, PhD

    • Nightingale, A. (2008). Approaching the Dark Gods: Meeting Terror, Grief, and Defeat when Reclaiming the Self (Master's Thesis).

    • Member of the Oregon Friends of Jung for a decade

    • Jungian advanced training with Martha Blake NCPsyA, Jungian Analyst

    • Jungian advanced studies with Pacific Northwest Society of Jungian Analysts

    • Archetypal Pattern Analysis with the Assisi Institute

    • A multitude of workshops through Oregon Friends of Jung on subjects including: Active Imagination, Death and Dying, Character Formation, Working with Inner Figures, the ego/Self Axis, and Archetypal Psychology

    • First Year Coursework for Ph.D in Depth Psychology with an emphasis on Psychotherapy from Pacifica Graduate Institute

    • Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy Training – M.E.T.A. and The Hakomi Institute of Oregon

    • The Recreation of the Self (R-CS) - M.E.T.A. and The Hakomi Institute of Oregon

    • Advanced Clinical Maps and Topics – M.E.T.A and The Hakomi Institute of Oregon

    • Attachment, Trauma & Psychotherapy: Neural Integration as a Pathway to Resilience and Well-Being – Dan Siegel MD

    • EMDR: Step by Step - Linda Curran

    • EMDR & Mindfulness: Interventions for Anxiety, Depression, Panic, Trauma, & Other Disorders - Jaime Marich

    • Trauma, Attachment, and Neuroscience – Bessel van der Kolk MD

    • Advanced Mindfulness Practices: Levels A,B, and D - Liliana Barzola

    • Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems Therapy – Frank Anderson MD

    • Internal Family Systems for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, Addiction and More – Richard Schwartz PhD

    • Dreamwalking - Toko-Pa Turner 

    • IFS Circle one-year training – Richard Schwartz PhD, Toni Herbine-Blank MS RN CS-P, and Pamela Krause LMFT

    • IFS Level 1 Training – Chris Burris LPC and Sarah Stewart PhD

    • Daily Parts Meditation Practice - Michelle Glass

    • IFS Continuity Program: Depression, Anxiety & Shame - Richard Schwartz PhD, Ann Sinko LMFT, & Michael Elkin LMFT

    • Ethics of Telemental Health - Roy Huggins LPC

    • IFS Level 2 Training: IFS, Trauma, & Neuroscience: Overcoming Roadblocks to Healing - Frank Anderson MD

    • IFS Continuity Program: Treatment for Sexual Abuse, Victims and Perpetrators - Nancy Wonder PhD & Dick Schwartz PhD

    • Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR (SAFE) Level 1 - Susan Wendelborg LCSW

    • Ancestral Medicine (Advanced Lineage Unburdening) - Dr. Daniel Foor

    • Advanced training in unattached burden healing - Betsy Bergstrom

    • Clinical Supervision Training - Dr. Karen Hixson

    • Dream Teacher Training - Robert Moss

    • IFS Treatment for Healing and Restoring Health: Freedom from Trauma and Early Adversity - Nancy Sowell LCISW & Dr. Richard Schwartz

    • Working with the Unconscious: Dreamwork, Projection, Active Imagination, and Alchemy - Satya Doyle Byock LPC, The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies

    • Symbols and Dreamwork: Images from the Unconscious - Satya Doyle Byock LPC, The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies

    • Dream Lodge with Toko-Pa

    • The Timeless Search for Meaning and Stability - Satya Doyle Byock LPC, The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies

    • In Process - first year training in Somatic Experiencing with Debra Clydesdale LAc, DNBAO, SEP,CMT, CDS

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    My Background

         I am what could be called a ‘re-tread’. That means that a buttload of hard work, experimentation, study, dead ends, back roads, side-gigs, and dark nights have helped me to bushwhack a path to my Self out of the haunted house of my childhood. After having done everything from farm hand/manual laborer to development aid work, massage therapist at a homeless youth and low-income medical clinic to waitress, I had a thunderclap epiphany on a sunny March afternoon that I was supposed to be a psychotherapist. I have never looked back. In total, I have been accompanying people in some of the most vulnerable and brave moments of their lives for 20 years. I also know how to drive a Caterpillar (the big mechanical, metal kind but I like where your mind is going), read the news every day, cry when I’m in a stand of Redwoods, love to cuss, and adore babies.

    My Working Style

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    Inside a 5,000 year old burial cairn in Ireland. 

         You might be able to tell by now that I am not one of those quiet, gentle-demeanored, and unreadable therapists. Neither will I be doing stand-up about my childhood trauma on the first session. Our relationship will evolve over time, but in that time I will be regularly letting you know that you have been heard and understood. I will remember what you said 20 sessions ago and weave it back into our work. I will challenge you and give you feedback and stories and resources and an education about everything from human psychological development to how an ancient Greek play illustrates a universal process by which the psyche evolves and heals. I do not care for therapists who are very aloof. Too much time goes into getting a good feel for them and you need a really good feel for them before much of your most vulnerable parts will make an appearance. So, I make a point to be very transparent, warm, and accessible. It saves a lot of time and anxiety. Also, only real human relationship heals. How can I help you be in relationship with yourself and with others if we cannot start with each other? You may not know all the details of my life, but you will know who I am. Read my Approach page to learn more.

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