I am a Florida native, born and raised in Lake County. I earned my Bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida, majoring in Technical Theater. Upon graduation, I worked in the entertainment industry for five years before getting an itch to reexamine my career path. While I still love the challenge of working in entertainment, I always found myself interested in people’s stories. My journey into the therapy realm began with my own experience of being in the client chair. Therapy provided me a space to explore and define my life’s meaning and direction. It is this experience that inspired me to return to school. In 2015, I enrolled as a non-degree seeking student at UCF and signed up for the Introduction to Counseling course. I felt right at home and it confirmed that I was moving in the right direction. I graduated from UCF in 2018 with my Master’s of Arts in Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy.
I bring with me my experience working for a non-profit community agency. This setting provided me space to grow and develop by working with a wide range of client needs. Being a community agency we offered a variety of services for the population. I have experience working with substance abuse issues, mental health diagnoses, adolescents, adults, couples, and working with mandated clients. By using an existential and motivational interviewing approach it allowed me to connect with each client in a personal and autonomous manner.
I completed the needed continuing education with the Modern Sex Therapy Institutes (MSTI) to become a Certified Sex Therapist in Florida in 2020. I continued my education journey by completing the Clinical Sexology PhD program at MSTI in 2023. As a sex-positive therapist, I am here to help you with more than just issues directly related to sex. Sometimes focusing too narrowly on sex leaves out other important aspects of your history and emotional profile.
Clinical Perspective
I view therapy as a GPS to help you navigate life’s journey. My approach is rooted in an Existential philosophy where our life’s meaning and purpose comes from within. We can experience stress from feeling disconnected from a sense of purpose and life’s challenges can derail us from our purpose. Within this philosophy, I use interventions from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Systemic Sex Therapy. These interventions assist with reframing thoughts that work against us and apply acceptance to free us from situations that are not in our control. I also view the world from a systemic lens, meaning that issues typically do not exist in isolation and interact with many facets of the world around us. Much like when gardening, a gardener will not just break a weed off at the surface, we will explore the root of the issue to help resolve it.
