I decided to become a therapist because I was so disappointed in the care I had received.

Throughout my childhood and young adult years, I was taken to various specialists—individuals highly regarded (even to this day) in their fields—and would leave feeling worse than when I walked in. I felt misunderstood, unheard, and as if I was failing at therapy (and at life). The stress and fear of trying to fix what the experts couldn’t caused my body to break down. I went to The Mayo Clinic and did the “Tour de Mayo,” otherwise known as the Executive Physical, where I was diagnosed with a constellation of health issues that better explained the symptoms I had experienced growing up. Ultimately, I had to get really f*cked up by therapists to learn that I wasn’t actually that f*cked up, I was just chronically ill. 

The more I started talking about how much therapy hurt, the more I learned that my experience was not remotely unique. Regardless of race, class, gender, or issue, I started to realize that finding a therapist who fits you is a profoundly difficult task (on top of whatever prompted you to seek therapy in the first place). From there, I had one goal: I didn’t want to be the best therapist that ever lived, I wanted to be an objectively not sh*tty Therapist. Even if I wasn’t the right fit, I would at least be able to help them find someone who is.

Professionally, this was a major pivot, and it wasn’t the first time I had to get mentally flexible about work. Historically, I always thought I would be a Restauranteur. I started working in restaurants when I was thirteen and had worked my way up into professional kitchens before it was “technically” legal. Cooking was like my meditation, but by 18, it was clear my body couldn’t sustain it, and I had to go to “Plan B."

It wasn’t a huge leap from restaurants to Food Media. I was lucky enough to score an internship with Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods), which continued for several years. I went to Boston University and majored in Advertising, which allowed me to work at several food marketing firms across Boston and the Twin Cities. But alas, the stress of agency work was not conducive to my unnamed health issues. It was at this time I completed my “Tour de Mayo” and learned another pivot would be required. 

I got myself up off the mat and went to “Plan C.” I wanted to make sure I liked the world of therapy before fully committing to a graduate program. I started working in a DBT group home for adolescent girls with severe and persistent mental illness, then with incarcerated populations, and decided to attend St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. In my internship year of graduate school, I worked in school-based mental health at Edison High School through the Community School Collaborative under the supervision of Jessica Vazquez, MA, LMFT, and graduated in 2017. I started working at The Calli Institute shortly after graduation under the supervision of Cathy Malmon, MA, LMFT, LICSW, and received my Minnesota State License in Marriage and Family Therapy in February 2020. I tried on another private practice before deciding that becoming my own boss was the best way to take care of my health and my clients.

After doing some organization coaching and consulting in addition to insurance based care, I now focus entirely on my Private Practice, teaching, offering education to professionals and community members, and providing supervision to prelicensed LPCC/LMFT candidates.