I am licensed in Washington with 10 years of professional counseling experience and hundreds of proud and happier clients. I work with clients ranging in ages from young teens with weak self-understanding and self-esteem to clients in their senior years, dealing with devastating losses, deaths, grief, and disturbing changes. I have observed that anxiety is one of the greatest reasons my clients give for seeking help. Sleep difficulties and resultant depressive symptoms so often run hand-in-hand with anxiety and high levels of stress. In therapy, we work from the inside out as we explore what we know, what we can change, how we can grow and how we can better respect and give to ourselves and to others in our lives. Relationship or communication issues are often reasons given by couples or domestic partners when they are experiencing a breakdown in their coupleship. These relationships too often combine ineffective coping patterns that were actually learned early in each individual person’s childhood homes. I work with my clients to create a trusting and safe environment where thoughts and feelings can be shared without fear or judgment. Another area is working through trauma , whether it be a one-time natural disaster or complex trauma that can so often follow family addiction, neglect, emotional abuse, mental illness or death of a sibling or parent…all traumas that drain us of personal confidence and positive self-esteem. Without those, we often have difficulty creating helpful ways of making wise decisions or even trouble being able to judge who is good for us or who might be toxic or dangerous in our life. Doing important “deep dives” to change maladaptive issues can truly help us change negative patterns, learn more effective coping strategies, change thinking patterns, and being willing to respect and value the differences in a friend or partner, resulting in greater respect for themselves and our partners. Teens far too often today are dealing with bullying, social media that begs comparison with others who look “perfect” but gradually damages a young person’s self-esteem and personal confidence which is at the core of becoming and being our best selves. Finally, I enjoy working with those trying to recover from addiction and working with their families so they can take better care of themselves and their families in the face of addiction. I can help teach much about learning to feel less afraid, less trapped by their loved one’s addiction. There are certain ways we can begin to live our lives emotionally more removed from the addiction that plagues our family. We can then work gently toward a healthier individual understanding and family wholeness. Taking the first step to sign up for therapy does take courage but the results of living a better, more enjoyable life is so worth the work and the effort to change. We can grow, ask the right questions, and gain pride in ourselves as we see change day by day and week by week. Hurray for getting started!!!