In 2013 I started working at the behavioral hospital where I had previously interned, and I noticed few people improved. I also saw the unintentional harm experienced by staff and students. These experiences led me to a deep dive into trauma work starting with the “gateway” book by Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (2014). Finally, my personal experiences with trauma, as well as those of my clients, made sense. We hold the fragmented stories in our bodies.

In my career as a social worker, I have seen the effects of traumatic stress on communities as well as individuals. These experiences hardwire the nervous system towards protection and hypervigilance—sometimes this looks like anger and anxiety, and sometimes like sadness and being “checked out.” I’ve completed a certificate program with The Trauma Center and Trauma Research Foundation, then earned a Doctor of Social Work degree with a clinical research focus on traumatic stress—both direct and indirect—and ways to move through the adverse experiences held in our bodies. I brought this knowledge to the work with veterans, first responders, and healthcare professionals that I saw while working in behavioral health at a VA outpatient clinic, as well as in private practice.

As a body-oriented practitioner, I join with clients to honor what is held and move through the experiences. I incorporate strategies to rewire the nervous system towards safety as part of AF-EMDR. Certified since 2020 in both EMDR and HeartMath, I have used them daily while working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and in private practice. I work with individuals through childhood experiences, combat, life transitions, grief and loss related to suicide, and ongoing stress of helping professions (law enforcement, first responders, and front-line workers). Though change sometimes feels almost impossible, we walk through the stuck parts together on the way to hopeful resilience