About Me

If you’re thinking about working with me, it might be helpful to know some things about who I am and how I practice therapy. The purpose of this page is to help you decide if I might be a good fit for you, not just for me to list the resume-type things about my credentials and experiences (but I will include those as well).

You might want to know if I’m qualified and able to support you, and why I’ve chosen to work mainly with helping professionals and neurodivergent folks who are autistic or have ADHD (or both!). Here’s a little background information about me.

I love working with clients who are experiencing burnout, due to either occupational stress or neurodivergence, because that’s where so much of my professional experience comes from. I was a special education teacher for 11 years before making the transition into practicing psychology. When I talk about burnout with my clients, it’ s from a place of shared understanding - I know what it’s like to feel burned out. I also know that stress isn’t just a psychological construct; it’s a physiological one. And it requires physiological solutions that make sense for your life. I’m passionate about using current research about the nervous system to help you regain a sense of regulation, whether it’s physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually - usually a combination of all four. I’ve been called a neuroscience nerd on more than one occasion, and I once had a client call me out for moving to the edge of my seat to teach her about the stress cycle - because that’s how excited I get about sharing this information with you. It changed my life, and it can change yours. I truly believe that if you can learn tools to regulate your nervous system, you can begin to heal for good - whether it’s from everyday stress and anxiety, or more challenging experiences like trauma.

I love to support people who are ready to make changes and are looking for help to do it. I don’t fix my clients; I don’t believe you’re broken to begin with, anyway. What I do believe is that there are strategies and tools we can use to make changes that will put you back on the path to wellness. My goal is to help you feel fully human again - because burnout is often dehumanizing, especially if you’re working in a caring capacity, or if you’re experiencing the world with a neurodivergent brain. Together, we can put your challenges into context, understand why you’re feeling the way you do, and create a manageable plan to make today better than yesterday. Sometimes that means learning practical strategies to complete the stress cycle. Or learning about how to set and enforce boundaries to keep you healthy. Often, it involves developing self-compassion so that you can show yourself the same kindness and care you show to others. My job is drawing from my clinical training and experiences to ensure you get the support you need and deserve to heal and grow.

Relationship and connection are always at the heart of the work I do with all my clients. We know that goodness of fit between a therapist and client is a strong predictor of whether or not clients will meet the outcomes they’re looking for in counselling. Creating a relationship where you feel safe, seen, understood, and empowered to make change is my main priority. It's an incredibly vulnerable thing to trust someone with your challenges and pain, and to let them be in the trenches with you. What I offer is a space where you can feel safe to bring everything into session - whether you need to laugh, cry, or share your biggest fears, or vent about the everyday things that are getting under your skin. You’re invited to bring your whole self into therapy and to get the help you deserve without fear of being judged or shamed.

I bring my whole self into session, too. What does that look like? A sense of humour, empathy, unconditional support, and a thoughtful approach to your problems. I’m not a cheerleader - I know when to be gentle and when to be direct. I offer the personalized support you need so you can achieve the goals you set for yourself in therapy.

Now for the resume things: I am a Registered Provisional Psychologist in good standing with the College of Alberta Psychologists. I have a Master of Counselling degree with a specialization in Counselling Psychology from Athabasca University (2022), and a Bachelor of Education degree in Elementary and Special Education from the University of Alberta (2010). I taught for over 11 years for public school boards in Edmonton and Calgary, and those experiences have given me insight into what it’s like to be a frontline public sector worker. I have supported teachers and helping professionals for just over 2 years in a therapeutic capacity, and I have worked with neurodivergent individuals in community and educational settings for over 15 years. My clients often tell me they appreciate that they don’t need to explain their working conditions or life context to me because I "just get it”. They know that I understand that their challenges because I have been through similar things, too.

Before I graduated from my master’s program, I completed basic training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in April 2022 (you can learn more about this in the EMDR section). I chose EMDR because it has the evidence-backing to prove that it is effective for healing trauma. It also fits with what I understand about the human nervous system and how we can work with our bodies to heal trauma for good. That means that I often connect clients’ experiences back to what’s happening in their bodies, whether we’re talking about responses like fight/flight/freeze, or working on ways to recognize and hold space for our emotions. The more you know about details of being human (especially how your body and emotions work), the better prepared you are to successfully take on things like stress and anxiety.

I love supporting clients who are ready to make changes to reclaim their wellness, joy, and peace. Helping clients to discover ways of feeling like themselves again is work that I am endlessly grateful to do. You don’t have to stay stuck in chronic stress and burnout forever. Therapy can help you get your life back.

Ready to get started? Book a complimentary meet and greet, or choose an individual counselling session. I’m ready to help you feel better.