Below cynicism, fear, and hopelessness, we all yearn for a life filled with meaning and connection.
Countless studies have shown that at the end of the day, good relationships = happiness.
So simple, yet so hard - for so many of us, our relationships with ourselves, our families, and our partners are fraught with challenges and conflict. Many of us struggle with our relationship to our purpose in life and why we are even here.
As human beings, our brains and bodies give us a gift of amazing potential: we can reflect on our actions and our past, we can plan and we can set goals, we can make art, dance, create, make love. We can connect with meaning, stories, metaphor, spirit, the unknown, the great web of connection that holds the whole universe together.
And at the same time, our brains and bodies want us to survive. We have a hair-trigger system that shuts down our thinking brain and activates our survival system when we perceive threat. Under threat, we defend, protect, avoid, fight, distract with substances or screens, and do other things that cut ourselves off from our best selves and our loved ones. We conflate the present with the past and we insist that those around us are repeating the wounds we experienced long ago. We curl up with shame from how we acted, we hide when we need help.
Using the tools of mindfulness as well as knowledge of how the brain and body work, we have the opportunity to learn about our very personal and particular patterns, and practice new ways of being in relationship - with ourselves and others.
It is excruciatingly painful to be disconnected. I work with individuals and couples using a dynamic, trauma-informed, body-centered, attachment-based approach that will help you gain new awareness, habits, and ways of being. Though each client's path is unique, the people that work with me walk away with a greater capacity for life and greater meaning and connection.
Countless studies have shown that at the end of the day, good relationships = happiness.
So simple, yet so hard - for so many of us, our relationships with ourselves, our families, and our partners are fraught with challenges and conflict. Many of us struggle with our relationship to our purpose in life and why we are even here.
As human beings, our brains and bodies give us a gift of amazing potential: we can reflect on our actions and our past, we can plan and we can set goals, we can make art, dance, create, make love. We can connect with meaning, stories, metaphor, spirit, the unknown, the great web of connection that holds the whole universe together.
And at the same time, our brains and bodies want us to survive. We have a hair-trigger system that shuts down our thinking brain and activates our survival system when we perceive threat. Under threat, we defend, protect, avoid, fight, distract with substances or screens, and do other things that cut ourselves off from our best selves and our loved ones. We conflate the present with the past and we insist that those around us are repeating the wounds we experienced long ago. We curl up with shame from how we acted, we hide when we need help.
Using the tools of mindfulness as well as knowledge of how the brain and body work, we have the opportunity to learn about our very personal and particular patterns, and practice new ways of being in relationship - with ourselves and others.
It is excruciatingly painful to be disconnected. I work with individuals and couples using a dynamic, trauma-informed, body-centered, attachment-based approach that will help you gain new awareness, habits, and ways of being. Though each client's path is unique, the people that work with me walk away with a greater capacity for life and greater meaning and connection.
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I'm a licensed professional counselor, a teacher, a professional outdoorswoman, and the mother of two young children. I have almost twenty years of clinical experience working with people dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship struggles, and more, in hospital, crisis clinic, wilderness treatment, and private practice settings. I teach for the Wilderness Therapy Masters program at Naropa Univeristy, and I have twenty years of experience as a professional wilderness and climbing guide. I offer counseling for individuals and couples in Golden and Boulder Colorado, as well as outdoors on the trail.
I am passionate about helping people connect with themselves, other people, and the world around them. This work - whether in the office or in a mountain meadow - will help you have more freedom and more choice, and it will help you engage with life more fully, in body, heart, mind, and spirit. |
