My Education, Training, and Experience:

I chose a social work career after serving over 9 years in the U.S. Army. While serving, I was exposed to people struggling with mental illness. Those experiences helped me realize that this was where I wanted to serve next in my career. I graduated from Austin Peay State University in 2018 with my bachelor's in Social Work (BSW) after completing a practicum with a home health agency specializing in dementia care. I then moved to New York City and worked as a crisis counselor for the city's mental health crisis line providing brief supportive counseling, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention. I graduated from New York University in May 2020 with a master's in social work (MSW). During my internship, I worked with an interdisciplinary team serving clients who have frequent contact with the mental health, criminal justice, and homeless services systems, recent unsafe and escalating behavior, and those poorly served by outpatient settings. The primary diagnosis for the team's participants was schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and co-occurring substance use. After relocating to Washington, I continued working with those living with severe and persistent mental illness in a community mental health agency providing individual therapy and case management services out in the community. I primarily provide therapy using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness techniques but will pull from other evidence-based practices for individualized treatment.

I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Work Associate in Washington (License# SC61114835).