About Me
I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor with thirteen years of counseling experience. I specialize in treating depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, ADHD, and relationships for adults. I work with everyone from people looking for a little help or growth in their life to those that have suffered from lifelong mental health problems.
My interest in counseling began high school, where I was a peer counselor for classmates and a mentor for younger at-risk youth. Despite having little training in actual therapy techniques, I was pleasantly surprised how effective empathetic listening and developing a therapeutic relationship was in helping my peers to make positive changes in their life.
Following high school, I pursued a degree from the Lamont School of Music at The University of Denver in Jazz Studies, where I received over a half dozen awards and scholarships, including Most Outstanding Undergraduate in Jazz, Most Outstanding Undergraduate in Academic Achievement, and Most Outstanding Senior in Performance. After graduating in 2001, I was a guest student and performer to the Nagoya University of the Arts in Japan, followed by several summers at the Henry Mancini Institute at UCLA where I performed and studied with some of the biggest names in jazz and film in Los Angeles. The Mancini Institute placed a large emphasis on developing a personable professional identity that emphasized character and social skills in addition to performance excellence that I credit as precursor to entering professional counseling.
Following my undergraduate degree, I was a freelance professional musician in Denver performing music from jazz, theater, and popular music with artists including Ron Miles, Nelson Rangell, the U.S. Air Force Falconaires, Lannie Garrett, The Six Million Dollar Band, and the musicals “Wicked” and “Spamalot”.
I also began teaching music lessons privately to adults and teens interested in a variety of music. It was through teaching that I became aware of the power of being a positive influence on other people. I also saw how much my students’ musical development was dependent on positive psychological traits such as openness to feedback, confidence, concentration, organization, and discipline. I sought to encourage these habits alongside the technical and theoretical components of music and found the endeavor rewarding.
In my early adulthood, I found my interest in personal growth broaden from music to include athletics, fitness, spirituality, and relational intelligence. I attended several years of psychotherapy, and I started practicing mindfulness meditation in my late 20’s intensively with a number of teachers from the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada branches of Buddhism. I attended many group and solo meditation retreats across the US with various teachers. There was an exciting merger of western science and psychotherapy with mindfulness meditation developing that I felt was opening some new vistas in human potential.
Interested in pursuing a more complete way of helping others while incorporating some of the holistic growth models I had learned, I pursued a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from University of Colorado Denver with an emphasis on Clinical Mental Health, graduating in 2012. I began counseling students and community members UCD’s Community Counseling Center counseling in 2011.
From 2012 to 2013, I was an intern and extern at Noeticus Counseling Center in Denver, where I provided low cost individual and group counseling and received ongoing training in topics including Gestalt and Existential Psychotherapy. I served as the coordinator for their Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program, managing group facilitators and developing policy guidelines. I also co-created and lead a class based on Pragmatic Experiential Therapy for Couples.
I started my counseling private practice in 2013 in Centennial, and became a Licensed Professional Counselor in 2015.
In 2015, I began working at the The Wellness Treatment Center, an intensive outpatient program (IOP) for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. It has been an invaluable addition to my private practice as I enjoy providing group therapy as a contrast the individual work of my private practice. It is very rewarding to see them make progress through the program, and I enjoy working with and learning from my many excellent colleagues at the Wellness Treatment Center.
In my free time, I enjoy hiking, practicing and performing music, golf and other outdoor activities, and spending time with friends and family.
Credentials and Education
Licensed Professional Counselor, 2015- Present
MA in Counseling Psychology, University of Colorado Denver, Clinical Mental Health Specialty, 2012
BM, University of Denver, Music Performance 2001
License
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) #0012652 Issued Sept, 2015; State of Colorado, Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Professions and Occupations
Trainings
- Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy Certification, Skylight Psychedelics, Dr. Dana Lehrman, MD, 2022
- Eating Disorders, Shame and Fertility with Kate Daigle, MA, LPC, 2018
- The Body Keeps the Score with Bessel van der Kolk, MD, 2017
- Mindfulness, Healing and transformations, John Kabbat-Zinn, PhD, 2017
- Building Trust, Love, and Loyalty in Relationships w/ John Gottman, Ph, 2017
- Bipolar Disorder in Your Practice: Effective Diagnosis and Treatment for Mood Swings, 2015
- Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Externship, 2015
- Intro to Existential Psychotherapy Therapy, 2015
- Intro to Gestalt Therapy, 2013
- Independent Facilitator of Becoming a Love and Logic Parent® Training, 2013
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workshop with Stephen Hayes, PhD, 2013
- Pragmatic Experiential Therapy for Couples Training with Brent Atkinson, PhD, 2012
- Prepare and Enrich Relationship Assessment Training, 2012
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training, 2012
- New Frontiers in Trauma Treatment Workshop with Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., 2010
- Mindfulness Retreats with Shinzen Young:
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- Allenspark, CO, 2010
- Palos Ranchos Verdes, CA, 2007, 2008
- Loveland, CO, 2006
- Shambhala Warrior Training, Levels 1 and 2, 2006 & 2007
- Integral Life Practice Workshop, 2006
- Big Mind Retreat w/ Roshi Dennis “Genpo” Merzel, July 2006