BECOME ANCHORED

My interest in counseling began during college as I found that it was the outcasts, the
marginalized, the neurodiverse, the loners, the wallflowers, and the people who were ignored,
overlooked, and forgotten that intersected my life the most. Before I knew it, we had an informal
gathering of people who regularly met up and just hung around with one another. Even back
then, I found many people in the group opening up to me, sharing their lives, their frustrations,
and their fears. It was one of the reasons I switched my major from secondary education to
psychology; I wanted to know enough to really help the people with whom I talked.
I received my B.A. in Psychology at Texas Lutheran University in 1992 and was planning
on going straight to grad school, but life, as it often does, had other plans for me, but my love of
helping people never left. From a job working with abused youth and adolescents to being a
Youth Director at a church, volunteering time working with the homeless, working at an MHMR
center, and being a camp director for a summer camp, my life always involved serving others.
As part of that service and that passion, I enrolled in Luther Seminary and graduated with
a master’s in theology in 2022. It was not surprising that the most formative aspects of the
seminary were found in the electives I took, such as intimate partner violence, grief and loss,
trauma and ministry, and pastoral counseling. They touched upon my passion for serving others
and led me to finally enroll myself at Lamar University to get my master’s in counseling
psychology.

Now, I get to use the skills and talents I have learned to help those who are facing things
in their lives that take away their peace, discourage them, and take away from the life they want
to lead.

I believe that people have within themselves the ability to change and that my role is not
to tell the client how to change but to listen, understand, and be a facilitator to help them address
their own goals for therapy.

I practice multicultural counseling, which means that it is important for me to understand
how my clients see the world, which means that I will first seek to understand their point of view
and how it is shaped by their culture, family, community, and experiences. Everyone deserves
the opportunity to receive mental health counseling, regardless of ethnicity, creed, religion,
gender identity, gender expression, disabilities, or age.

I offer a safe space and place for people to be seen, heard, and understood, to take control
of their own growth, to heal through themselves, and to be able to use their tools and techniques
long after therapy might end.