What Is Therapy?

In therapy, I have found that we often talk about where we want to arrive, but rarely about the process of becoming.

I often hear some version of, “I’ll be happy when ______.” Yet when happiness depends on reaching the next milestone, changing a circumstance, or becoming a different version of ourselves, it can remain just out of reach.

My work invites clients to come back to the here and now — the present.

Through curiosity, imagination, and meaningful work, I devote time and energy to understanding each client as they are and as they are becoming. I see therapy as a fluid, evolving process rather than a straight line toward a predetermined destination.

I believe children, teenagers, young adults, adults, relationships, families, and communities can all benefit from counseling. At different points in our lives, we may need a space where we can slow down, be met without judgment, become more aware of ourselves, and imagine new possibilities.

That is where I believe the transformative work of therapy begins.

My Story

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and eventually went on to live in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Houston before settling in Columbus, Ohio.

My childhood took place largely before phones and screens became central to everyday life. I was fortunate to have a grandmother who deeply understood the importance of play, creativity, nature, and self-expression. Those early experiences continue to shape how I understand children, creativity, connection, and healing today.

At the same time, my family experienced financial challenges, and achievement became an important part of how I understood myself. In sixth grade, I made a decision: I wanted to finish first in my class every year until graduation. And I did — from sixth through twelfth grade.

Achievement brought tremendous fulfillment, but it also taught me something about the pressures we can place on ourselves to succeed, perform, and become “enough.”

Today, I draw upon that lived experience when working with teenagers and young adults navigating perfectionism, motivation, achievement, and identity. I understand both the beauty of striving toward something meaningful and the importance of discovering who you are beyond what you accomplish.

Why I Became a Therapist

Becoming a therapist felt less like changing careers and more like bringing together the different parts of a life I had already been living.

While teaching at the university level, I became increasingly aware of the profound need for guidance, connection, and emotional support among young people. Then, in 2020, the pandemic made the human need for connection even more visible.

After more than 20 years as a teacher, creative person, and professional working with children, teenagers, young adults, and communities, I earned my M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Ohio University.

I draw from my experiences as a professional athlete, college professor, educator, and someone whose own childhood was deeply influenced by play and creativity. In many ways, I don't see therapy as a path I suddenly discovered. I see it as a path I had been preparing for throughout my life.

In sessions, you may hear me talk about the idea of a “window.” This concept is influenced in part by my 200-hour yoga teacher training, where I was introduced to a holistic way of considering human experience through the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of life.

As a clinician, I invite each person to explore their own window — discovering what holds meaning, what asks for attention, and what becomes possible through greater awareness.

Therapy as a Place for Learning

My degree is an M.Ed. — a Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling — and I have always taken the word education seriously.

I believe an important part of therapy is learning: learning about yourself, your relationships, your patterns, your body, your emotions, and the ways you move through the world.

Within therapy, we can explore goals and the systems surrounding them while developing new ways of understanding and responding to our experiences. With greater awareness and learning, new pathways for growth, healing, and change can begin to emerge.

Therapy, then, is not simply a place to talk about what has happened. It can become a place to discover what you want to do with what you now know.

My Gestalt Philosophy

I have been fortunate to train in and be informed by several theoretical approaches to therapy. As a therapist who values creative modalities and the relationship between our physical and emotional lives, I am particularly drawn to Gestalt therapy.

Gestalt invites us to become curious about the whole person — not simply a diagnosis, symptom, behavior, or problem to solve.

The Present — Here and Now

We pay attention to what is happening in your life right now, while remaining curious about the histories and lived experiences that emerge in the present. The past matters, but we explore it in relationship to how it continues to live within you today.

The Whole Person

I see you as an interconnected combination of mind, body, emotions, relationships, and lived experience rather than as separate pieces. Together, we can explore how these different parts of you relate to one another.

Self-Awareness

We work collaboratively to strengthen self-awareness — noticing physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, energy, patterns, and reactions as they arise. Awareness can create space between what we experience and how we choose to respond.

Taking Responsibility

Finally, we explore Taking Responsibility — not as blame, but as empowerment. This means developing the capacity to recognize your feelings, choices, needs, boundaries, and possibilities rather than allowing outside circumstances or other people to entirely determine your experience.

For me, this is at the heart of Gestalt work: becoming more aware of who you are, what you are experiencing, and how you want to meet your life.