I began my professional career as a field archaeologist, subsequently becoming a lawyer. After practicing law for eighteen years, I decided to pursue a life-long fascination (obsession, really) with interpersonal relationships and the ways in which our relationships create a context through which we understand and experience ourselves and the world around us, and to a large extent determine the quality and texture of our lives.
I obtained an M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Utah in 2015. Like many professionals entering the practice of psychotherapy, I spent the following two years providing psychotherapy under the supervision of a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice where I saw and treated a wide variety of presenting concerns in individuals and couples, and in group contexts. I taught Family and Couple Counseling in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program at the University of Utah in the fall of 2019. I served a three-year term on the board of Women in Private Practice from 2018-2021.
I’ve been working with couples since 2014 and have post-graduate training in several relationship treatment models including the Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, the Developmental Model of Couples Therapy, and Discernment Counseling, as well as some foundational training in psychoanalytic couples therapy and family systems. The Developmental Model of Couples therapy is the primary modality through which I work, and have been training in continuously since 2018, joining their master mentor program in 2022.
Couples therapy is a dynamic and evolving field and my therapeutic approach continues to be informed by a diverse community of practitioners, researchers, and theorists including Esther Perel, Terry Real, Alain de Botton, Eli Finkel, Neil Jacobsen, Andrew Christensen, David Schnarch, the Gottmans, Sue Johnson, Pete Pearson & Ellyn Bader, Stan Tatkin, and Harville Hendrix to name a few.
Doing the work of couples therapy is one of the greatest privileges of my professional life, and a source of endless curiosity, engagement, and satisfaction.
“You find your vocation where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”