Services Provided

Treatment specialization includes:

• Peri and Post Partum mental health issues including pregnancy after the loss of child at birth
• Death of a child
• Grief Counseling
• Trauma informed therapy for depression and anxiety
• Addiction & Recovery coping skills including skills to manage mood changes forpatients on Suboxone and Methadone
• Trauma treatment using EMDR and hypnosis
• Certified First Responder Counselor training, over 50 hours of study and competency evaluated by a rigorous exam

I worked with Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis and St. Paul for 9+ years and conducted crisis-orientated work in their Emergency Department and throughout the hospital. Much of the that job involved counseling parents who have lost an infant or child, or who have a child with chronic health problems, or whose child has a life threatening condition. Psych triage occupied a great deal of the work at Children's. I also spearheaded the integration of internships for Social Work Students in the after hours shifts, providing not only a great learning environment for the students, but support for the incredible load of the social worker in the hospital setting. Additional training has prepared me to meet the needs of these individuals and families whom I served at the hospital. When interventions are available to address the trauma of child illness or death right away, we can sometimes prevent the possibility of PTSD or reduce the severity of their struggles.

My private practice focuses in part on pregnancy, parenting, sexuality and fertility in a setting that is separate from a medical practice. Pregnant women often struggle with worsening mental health symptoms and are limited in what medications they can safely use to manage their symptoms while pregnant. I use a variety of mind/body modalities (mindful meditation, guided imagery, hypnosis, yoga, DBT skills and EMDR) to help them cope during pregnancy and after delivery. These interventions are empirically supported and can make a substantial difference in the quality of life for pregnant women or new mothers. In addition, parents who have experienced a perinatal death have unique needs with subsequent pregnancy due to the trauma and grief related to their loss. Most couples attempt pregnancy within 18 months of a loss and struggle to navigate future pregnancy. Also, the mother’s experience is very different from the father’s and requires understanding of how their needs differ. My work with sexual abuse survivors has also positioned me to help adolescent and adult women make difficult decisions about un planned pregnancy, sexual decision making and coping with health problems that arise from sexual trauma.

Some of my work with adolescent and adult women focuses on the development of substance abuse disorders (particularly opioid use disorder) to cope with their untreated sexual or other health related traumas. While at Nystrom & Associates, I counseled a number of women using Suboxone or Methadone while teaching them mind/body interventions to more effectively deal with the heightened physiological arousal in their central nervous system. Skill-development oriented mental health services for women who are trying to manage mental health struggles and opioid addiction after completed CD treatment are scarce. The lack of ready access to these post-treatment services dooms women to suffer the revolving door of traditional 12 step-oriented programs and over-utilization of emergent medical resources.

Another interest of my practice is the support of first responders who are called to often traumatic events in our community. Culturally conversant therapists can often connect to this particular population when those not trained for this population miss the mark. My work with families in the Trauma Bay of a Level I Trauma Center positions me in a particular familiarity with the first responder. My training with the Academy Hour Certified First Responder Counselor training was specific and rigorous in refining my approach with the first responder.