What our mainstream medical and mental health systems categorize as ‘symptoms’ and ‘disorders’ contain important messages: our ‘dis-ease’ can often tell us how our needs are/are not being met in the present moment. This information is critical to building a sustainable life of richness, authenticity and fulfillment.
Because of this, I believe we each already have within us everything we need to heal.
This is the truth that underpins my life today, and forms the core basis for my work with clients. I would never have learned this if I had not lost faith in the medical model of mental health, tapered my prescriptions, and fought to build a new life for myself on the other side.
When I look back at nearly two decades on SSRI drugs, I believed that my ‘symptoms’ were evidence of a problem within me, and that the way to deal with that problem was to take drugs in an attempt to manipulate and suppress how I felt so that I could better tolerate my life. I didn’t yet understand that my ‘symptoms’ were really messengers brilliantly communicating to me that I needed to change my life, in order to not just survive, but thrive.
This wisdom, that carried me through the difficulties of getting off psych drugs and abandoning my self conception as a ‘sick person,’ was also my base of strength for what came next: contending with the deeper wounds of disempowerment and disconnection that were always at the heart of my struggles, and what had led to my diagnoses and drugging in the first place.
If you are interested in learning more of my story, click here.
My mission today is to help others learn to trust their own inner wisdom: to nourish, to care, to grow and to heal. The belief system that justifies and promotes the use of psychiatric drugs and diagnoses often leaves no space for that inner wisdom to emerge, and ironically, leaves no soil for all the richness and wonder of life to take root.
It takes time to amend the garden of the soul. There are many people willing to sell you flowers, or tell you which ones to grow. I am here to help improve the quality of your soil and maybe, down the line, do a little pruning.
My work is guided by:
- My own experiences
- The experiences of the thousands of people I have had the privilege of knowing, and working with since 2017
- The deep wisdom of the earth and its rhythms and systems
- A bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling, with specializations in both addiction and trauma
- My former practice as a therapist in multiple settings
Today, I prefer to work entirely outside the mainstream mental health system, though I understand it deeply and often assist my clients in finding ways to better navigate it.
Despite the significant investment I made in earning my degrees, and in obtaining additional specialized training and certification as an experiential therapist, I ultimately chose to walk away from the system. I realized that my service to others needed to draw from a broader palette, and be more flexible than what the world of insurance codes, licensing bodies, and the generally disempowering hierarchical nature of the entire model could offer me and my clients.
As a result, I can work in myriad ways, depending on what the client and the situation call for. I do most of my work one-on-one with individuals, but am very comfortable providing support and insights to family members, mental health professionals, and even employers who have a critical role in the lives of others who are bravely navigating the challenge of getting off psychiatric drugs.
I also exist as a full person: I live in the countryside with my partner and our two cats Sausage and Bagel.
I am a beekeeper with a growing apiary and a honey stand next to my local community park.
I am a gardener who particularly enjoys growing plants that are edible and medicinal.
I love making health-supporting herbal creations with the plants in my garden for myself and my loved ones.
I am a long time jewelry maker and singer. I always feel my best when I have spent the day unplugged and outside.
My life today is messy and beautiful, and I am so grateful for it all.