Hello!
I hold a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology and am a Clinical Counselor (LMHCA MC60407074). I am also a Certified Diversity Executive and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (L-18714). I provide individual, couples, and group counseling, speaking and training, media, and professional consultation services. I’m also an award-winning researcher who has been privileged to hear the stories of many people who have coped with unexpected challenges in life.
I graduated from Illinois State University in 1996. I first provided mental health care to diverse young adults at Illinois State University Career and Counseling Services and to a wide range of individuals, couples, and families at Chestnut Family Counseling Center in Bloomingtonl, IL. My focus on culture in my graduate education, over 30 years of bicultural and bilingual living, and commitment to the never-ending work of developing cultural humility and dismantling institutional oppression allows me to work respectfully and effectively with people who have various cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, beliefs, and life circumstances.
I offer holistic counseling that addresses the needs of individuals and families experiencing a variety of life challenges. One of my specialties is working with families coping with challenges in their reproductive and parenting years, such as postpartum depression and traumatic birth. I also work with survivors of narcissistic abuse and domestic violence.
I believe that—even during our greatest struggles—each person has strengths and solutions within them. I strive to help clients harness hope and their inherent ability to heal and grow so that they can move toward creating lives characterized by meaning and well-being. I offer individual, couples, family, and group therapy. I would be happy to talk with you.
My experiences as a mother led me to become a volunteer lactation counselor and then, in 2002, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a Registered Lactation Consultant (RLC). I have over 20 years of experience helping lactating families. I also have personal and professional experience with adoptive breastfeeding and adoptive parenting. I formerly served on Mothering magazine's Ask the Experts panel, answering questions about lactation.
My concern about the negative effect of traumatic life experiences, including traumatic birth and domestic violence, on well-being led me to become Certified in Acute Traumatic Stress Management. I am a member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and the National Center for Crisis Management.
My observations of the huge gap between intentions and outcomes for individuals and organizations striving to incorporate values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their lives and work have led me on a decades-long journey of developing knowledge and skills that are needed to effectively help counter the negative impact of multiple systems of privilege/opression on individuals and their communities. Part of my journey was becoming a Certified Diversity Executive.
As an internationally recognized speaker, I give presentations, keynotes, guest lectures, workshops, webinars, and other forms of training at events attended by parents, community members, college students, educators, adminstrators, perinatal support providers, health care providers, and mental health care providers.
Some of my publications have been translated from English into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Croatian, Hungarian, and Chinese.
I am an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University where I teach counseling skills. I am also the Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for JUUstice Washington, a state action network for social justice. I formerly served as Education Manager for the International Lactation Consultant Association.
