“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” -Christopher K. Germer
Background
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor with over 15 years of experience working with clients in a variety of therapeutic settings. In my early counseling career, I focused primarily on serving children and families, work that was as enlivening as it was challenging. Since launching my private practice in 2013, I have increasingly gravitated towards supporting adolescents, adult individuals, and couples with issues ranging from anxiety and depression, to early attachment wounding, trauma, life transitions, and many forms of relationship struggles.
I received my Masters in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, a Buddhist institution which emphasizes experiential learning and holistic strength-based practices. It was at Naropa where I discovered mindfulness practices for the first time and gained a deep appreciation for living an embodied, heart-centered life.
Coming to Austin, Texas from Quito, Ecuador when I was a child, I grew up in a bilingual and bicultural household, an experience which has allowed me to know what it’s like to straddle two worlds, to navigate the oftentimes complicated experience of having more than one identity. It has given me the gift of an ever-unfurling curiosity of people, and allowed me develop a strong penchant for travel.
My Approach
Connection, play, and curiosity are at the core of living a full life. Along our path, many times we get cut off from these vital forces through trauma, experiences of aloneness, and difficult emotions that are overwhelming and dysregulating. We can feel that we’ve lost our sense of self and of who we are in connection to others.
Learning how to manage our emotions and our perceptions of real or imagined threat allows us to open up to play and curiosity, creativity and imagination, compassion and a deeper capacity for connection.
Being in a therapeutic relationship together, witnessing and holding your story with kindness and humanity, sharing in corrective experiences where you gain a profound sense of your own truths — these are the things that can contribute to your path towards healing and create fertile ground for a richer way of living.
My job is to walk alongside you, to help hold curiosity and courage collectively with you, so that you can find the space to uncover your authentic self and meet that self with friendliness and love.
Training
I have been trained in EMDR, Brainspotting, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, intensive DEEP training, and PACT (a Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy). I attend regular trainings and workshops here in the Austin community, as well as participate in ongoing reading groups, community meditation practices, and offer occasional mindfulness and meditation workshops for therapists. I previously served on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization, Austin IN Connection, for four years and remain an active member.