Professional History
Counseling is a second career for me. I have a BFA in Fine Art and worked as an Art Teacher in Sumner County Schools for 12 years while my kids were young. Then I went back to college and earned my Master’s in Counseling Psychology in 2011. I started my counseling career at Centerstone where for 8 1/2 years. I worked in clinical settings, counseled students individually in schools, answered calls on the suicide hotline and served as a client advocate to connect people with the help they needed. Then, in January of 2019 I opened my own private practice in White House, TN.
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor- Mental Health Service Provider. That means I am a counselor who is also licensed to diagnose and treat mental disorders.
I have been trained in EMDR, Brainspotting, Clinical Hypnosis, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Gottman Treating Affairs and Trauma, and Rule 31 Family Mediation. I am always looking for new counseling tools to add to my toolbox.
Personally
I am a wife, a mom, a step-mom, and a grandmother. We are a blended family and that helps me to understand the struggles specific to being a step-parent and the biological parent. I have been through divorce, and that helps me to understand that not all marriages can work, as well as the pain of divorce, the trials of single parenthood, and the difficulties of becoming a blended family. Our children are all grown now and we are embracing the next phase of life with an empty nest, aging parents and other life transitions.
My husband likes to joke that I could name my counseling practice “Been There and Done That.” While I roll my eyes at his humor, God does seem to use the challenges in my life to enable me to understand and help others in similar situations.