Seeing the Work & the World Differently
I am a Psychotherapist with a passion for teaching people how to change. I love the work of helping others and I do so in two different settings. As a therapist I help people restore their wellness when it is fractured; as an educator I help people nurture their wellness into resilience and deep fulfillment. My work through Phases of Change focuses on the latter, offering people a variety of ways to expand and deepen their personal growth.
Unlike therapy, the work of wellness need not have and end, a factor that often goes overlooked. I believe deeply that every person’s journey of intentional wellness work should be ongoing, deepening and resilience-building. The further we move beyond the baseline of wellness, the less likely we are to find ourselves beneath it again. My offerings through Phases of Change are not mental health treatment. Rather, they are the work of wellness beyond the baseline and into an ongoing growth journey. Here, my work aims to help you embark, and remain on, a curious, impassioned adventure of expansion and Self-leadership.
My Path to Now
In my prior work as a business counselor, a domestic violence advocate and eventually as a clinician in my own private practice, my work has always been empowerment-based. I have long believed that by and large, with a few natural exceptions, people already have what they need to be well within them. For the most part, my work is about helping people access their own resources, grow into their natural potential and helping them learn to help themselves.
As my work in the helping fields has evolved, my interest in education has grown. Some of my most joyful pursuits have been developing new therapeutic methods and teaching them to graduate students and field colleagues. In recent years I have enjoyed developing graduate-level workshops at Goddard College, CEU training for the Vermont Psychological Association and teaching method to fellow clinicians at the Expressive Therapies Summit in NYC. Across these experiences, my greatest joy has not just been the teaching of new material but imparting new and transformational ideas.
The evolution of my work today, with the aide and reach of technology, is to teach these methods not only to other practitioners, but directly to people seeking these methods of growth and change. While increasingly uncertain times limit connection in some ways, they inspire me to do this work differently in new ways. I find great hope in rising to this challenge.
A More Heart-Centered Approach
I have expanded into non-clinical work to bring what I know and teach in a different context. Particularly in my work as a creative myself, it is important to create space to show up authentically. In therapy we must adhere to many understandable limits with our clients (provided we are professional). In teaching and facilitating, there is more room to speak to the deep meaning of the theories that shape this work.
Shortly after receiving my master’s degree in psychology from Goddard College, where I became passionate about Expressive Arts work, I chose to pursue another soul-spark: Internal Family Systems. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a profoundly unique therapy method and theory of the human condition. I landed wholly ‘at home’ in this model and committed to another year of rigorous learning through the IFS Institute in Boston. As my learning continued my own wellness practices grew, integrating the Expressive Arts and IFS, as outcroppings of my own professional development.
My own life has been enriched greatly as I have deepened my practices of Expressive Arts, IFS and my personal communion with nature. I am grateful that the theories which shape my work have deep meaning for me beyond their function as clinical tools. Without intending it, I have chosen methods of helping others that are also expansive theories for exploring ourselves and relating to the world around us.
Onward
Today, I continue to work in clinical mental health from my private practice and enjoy cultivating a host of wellness offerings here, through Phases of Change, for people seeking a proactive, theory-driven approach to personal growth.
I enjoy a quiet life in Vermont where I study art, nature and what it is to be on the human journey. I engage in my own art and IFS-based work daily, tend to my family and enjoy foraging, collecting textiles, walking in the woods, taking photographs, playing with new creative processes and writing about it all. I have several works in progress creatively, including two quilts, three books and a series of temporary works staged in nature.
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