I received my Bachelor of Arts from Wittenberg University in Ohio, where I majored in Psychology and minored in Women’s Studies. I moved across the country from Chicago to Oregon, where I volunteered for a year for the Jackson County Health Department, running a resource center for chemically dependent pregnant women and their children. I then spent the next four years as a case manager at Lithia Springs, a residential treatment center for adolescent girls in Ashland, Oregon. It was during this time that I also became interested in yoga, and began taking classes and studying with different teachers in the Ashtanga tradition at the Ashland Yoga Center.
Thoroughly enjoying my work with young women, I decided to go back to school in order to become a therapist. My interest in holistic wellness and developing yoga practice informed my decision to pursue my Master’s degree at the Buddhist inspired Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. During this time, I also studied yoga extensively at the Yoga Workshop. My yoga practice and the teaching I received there became as important to my growth as my graduate studies.
I graduated from Naropa University’s Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Master of Arts program in 2003. I soon began working at the Eating Disorder Center of Denver, where I spent the next three and a half years, and was extensively trained in the treatment of eating disorders. During my time at the EDC-D, I developed the yoga program for the center, and facilitated the yoga groups. I also assisted Emmett Bishop, M.D., now the medical director for the Eating Recovery Center in Denver, in presenting at the Renfrew Conference in 2006. I left my position at the EDC-D to pursue my private practice in 2007, and during that time also worked in collaboration with La Luna Center, Boulder, an outpatient eating disorder treatment center. There, I continued to facilitate group and individual therapy, as well as maintain a private practice outside of La Luna Center. Currently, I am solely in private practice.
My personal yoga practice continues to evolve, and my interest in yoga as a complement to psychotherapy continues to grow, as I find the fundamentals of breathing, mindfulness, and embodiment to be of huge benefit to my clients. I am working on extending the benefits of yoga to people who have experienced trauma, and have furthered my education in studying trauma treatment by completing the EMDR Level 2 certification, and completing the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Training for the Treatment of Trauma, Level 1.
I have also continued my study of meditation since my graduation from Naropa, formally with Dr. Reggie Ray, through Dharma Ocean and his Meditating with the Body program. The intertwining benefits of yoga and meditation serve my own growth, and many of my clients come in curious about how these tools can serve their recovery.
