Training and Experience

Credentials

I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor in Idaho (LPC), a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Washington (LMHC), and I’m a Nationally Board Certified Counselor (NCC).
 

I’m a graduate of The Couples Institute and participate regularly with ongoing training and consultation. I am also an approved facilitator of the Gottman Relationship Checkup assessment.

Certifications include:

• Certified Clinical Trauma Professional with the International Association of Trauma Professionals.
• Certified facilitator of Prepare/Enrich, the top premarital couple assessment.
• Certified facilitator of the Centerpoint Institute Cycles of Change model.

Before I became a counselor, I managed programs working with at-risk middle school kids, college students, and medical providers. I provided retreat and staff trainings in large organizational settings and held a variety of management positions in the worlds of for-profit, non-profit, and academic organizations.
 

My clinical experience and training include:

• Counseling couples, families, and children in private-sector practice. I’ve counseled couples from 19 years old (and not married, yet) to couples who’ve been married over 40 years. I’ve worked with individual clients from the age of 3 years old to 89 years old.
• Grief counseling with hospice, terminal illness, violent loss, and suicide loss survivors, leading support groups, and teaching bereavement classes
• Working with trauma survivors affected by PTSD and C-PTSD due to childhood trauma, war-related trauma, and sudden, violent losses
• Counseling individuals with a wide variety of mental health disorders for the State of Washington and in large Community Clinical Mental Health Centers (I’ve seen a lot)
• Leading Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups for a frontier-designated non-profit mental health center

Hundreds of hours of specialized professional trainings too numerous to list, including:

• Lifespan Integration Trauma Treatment and Life Review
• Graduate: The Couples Institute & Developmental Model of Couples Therapy
• Providing Multi-Day Couples Intensives: The Couples Institute
• Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Externship & Core Skills Plus with International Trainer Jim Thomas (Approved by ICEEFT)
• Levels 1 & 2 of the Gottman Method of Couples Counseling
• Numerous Faith-Based Professional Counseling classes with experts such as Kenny Sanderfer (Author of Created for Connection), Dr. Curt Thompson (Author of The Soul of Shame), and George Faller (Author of Sacred Stress); yearly Faith & Attachment series
• Couples Work with One Partner
• Numerous Research-based, Strength-based and Somatic-based Trauma and Anxiety Therapy Trainings
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Sex Therapy
• Complicated Mourning
• Internal Family Systems
• Equine-assisted Mental Health & Competencies in Adventure Based Therapy
• Professional Coach Training for organizations and individuals, The Coaches Training Institute
• Centerpoint Natural Cycles of Change© certified facilitator for groups and organizations
• Navigators Group and Leadership training