My interest in attachment relationships and family dynamics began more than a decade ago in the child development lab at Virginia Tech studying parents' emotion socialization and its influence on children's development. Many of our emotional responses, whether useful or destructive, are learned early on in our development and become habit by adulthood. These habitual responses rule when we are under stress and therefore we can make the same mistakes over and over again in our relationships despite negative consequences.

Over the years, my clinical work has involved helping individuals and families during periods of high stress (major life transitions, divorce, loss of employment, loss of a loved one) when it is easy to lose sight of self value and succumb to anxiety, anger, fear, and hurting the people we love most. For the past six years, I've worked specifically with adults who identify anger issues that prevent successful personal and professional relationships. My therapeutic practice develops individual strategies for emotion reconditioning using a strengths-based approach and incorporating mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral strategies. Therapy helps clients reduce overall resentment, increase frustration tolerance, reduce reactivity and gain greater life and relationship satisfaction. Each session is designed to move clients from a reactive, and therefore powerless state, to a proactive, confident and capable state; one much better suited for communication, relating with others and problem-solving.

I have experience with and welcome clients from all backgrounds regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, religious affiliation and/or sexual orientation.

I am a licensed mental health counselor (LH60571415), National Certified Counselor and DA (Danger Assessment) certified by the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. I am a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Washington Mental Health Counselor Association (WMHCA).