About me
Life guides us in many different directions, and I always knew that I wanted to help others even from a young age. I grew up in a small town with parents who had a lot of siblings, so I was involved in a lot of different lifestyles, family dynamics, communication styles, and strived to learn more about every person I ran into. I humorously say that I started my counseling career in high school, and that’s because I spent a good portion of my time trying to counsel other individuals who were struggling. Take it from me, we all have our tall-tale signs of best career choice and that was mine.
Two years after high school graduation, I went to college for my Bachelors in Psychology at the University Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UWO) with a minor in neuroscience, and four years later finished out the last of my education at the University Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW) adding a human services minor to my degree. I attended the UW-Whitewater’s Master’s Program gaining a Masters in Science for Counselor Education specializing in Marriage, Family, and Couple’s Therapy.
During the first portion of my Bachelors at UWO, I was working for C.E.S.A 6 as a mentor/therapist for troubled youth. This included traveling with them in and around the Winnebago County area to keep them connected with others within the community and avoid feelings of seclusion or increases in mental health symptoms. It involved park trips, museum tours, and other in-community organizational activities. These activities were meant to teach them healthy connections with others, and provide them with behavioral and psychological education relating to themselves and/or others, communication skills, and working through their stressors.
During my second year of my Masters’ Program, I worked at Credence Therapy Associates for my internship in a state-funded school therapy program. Here I worked two days a week providing therapy to kids struggling with mental health symptoms during their study halls or other extra-curricular classes.
Less than a month after graduation and my internship ended, I was hired at Rock County Human Services for a part-time temporary position as a Licensed Professional Counselor In-Training. This included four months of practicing therapy as a licensed professional, but also provided me an opportunity in learning more about the county’s responsibilities and service collaboration, as well community resources.
Soon after the temporary position ended, I was hired at Green County Human Services to provide Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Therapy services to individuals within the community. I worked there for over two years; once again gaining more experience and knowledge on their community and county-based resources available to the individuals that I served. It was there that I was able to provide not just individual therapy for mental health clients, but also practiced couples therapy, provided substance abuse individual and group sessions, was able to be an on-call provider for their community crisis services, administered different assessments, assisted in case management needs for clients, and grew together with my team.
On September 17, 2020 I started Guiding Waters Counseling, LLC to help create more hope for a better tomorrow including individual therapy for individuals trying to find their way through the ever-changing flow of life.
Don’t get me wrong, that all sounds very wonderful, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t go through my own struggles, which were guiding me in a new direction, of what I needed to learn for growth and development into the professional therapist that I am today.
Specialties
As stated earlier, I gained a specialty in marriage, couples and family therapy early on in my career slowly gaining my skills along the way. This started when first meeting with the parents of the children enrolling at Credence Therapy, and it was there that I began experiencing each of the specific dynamics between those families and its members. This was an opening to seeing how interactions, communication, and nonverbals unfolded and to develop understanding into the messages or behaviors learned throughout those exchanges.
Marriage, family, and couple’s counseling is a unique perspective that gives a look into the creation of how each individual understands, interprets and perceives the world through their own family dynamics.
For this type of therapy, it’s important to start with the sessions’ expectations, provide psychoeducation, and to help teach each individual new message delivery techniques and ways to improve as a unit. What a beautiful thing to experience, including its wonderful evolution of a relationship through guiding and exploring parts of themselves.
However, my journey didn’t start there. Initially, I had a desire to work with kids because that was where I felt most comfortable. This was probably because I grew up with a big family with lots of younger relatives and I enjoyed helping care for them. I found out that working for each of the two counties that I could connect very well with individuals of all ages, and saw the positive benefits of helping all of them.
After working for both outpatient clinics, I was provided with a vast array of individual, couple, child, and group therapy opportunities that later showed me the benefits of working with each.
It wasn’t until later in 2019, when I was presented with a training opportunity from a colleague, that I became aware of my real passion. It was Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing also known as EMDR. This was the therapy that really opened my eyes to the brain and body connection, and assisted me in helping individuals with substance abuse work to desensitize the negative beliefs and emotions that had been holding them back for years.
For the next year and a half, I was supervised by two trained EMDR-certified professionals who taught me not just about my clients but also indirectly about myself. Therefore, helping improving not just my clients blocks in information processing and decreasing triggers, but also my own. Thus, making me a better therapist to help guide others on their journey of hope and growth.