About
Nine years in one chair, doing one thing carefully.
Why I do this work
I came to trauma work sideways. My first job out of graduate school was in a hospital, and I spent two years watching people get excellent medical care and then get sent home with the worst hour of their life still running on a loop. Nobody was treating that part. It wasn't anyone's fault; it just wasn't on the chart.
The thing that changed my practice was a client — a retired paramedic — who had been in talk therapy for eleven years and could describe his own trauma responses more accurately than I could. He understood everything. Nothing had shifted. Six months of EMDR later he told me he'd driven past a particular intersection without noticing it, and only realized a mile later. That's the whole thing, really. Not catharsis. Not a breakthrough. Just a memory finally behaving like a memory.
I keep a photograph of the Blue Ridge fog on my office wall because it takes most of the morning to burn off, and it always does. I've been told that's corny. I've kept it up for nine years.
How I work
- I move at the pace your nervous system sets, not the pace of a treatment manual. If that means three sessions of resourcing before we target anything, that's what it means.
- I'm direct. If I think something is getting in the way, I'll name it, and you're allowed to tell me I'm wrong.
- There is humor in my room. Trauma work is heavy enough without the therapist being solemn about it.
- A session usually opens with a check-in, moves into whatever we planned, and always ends with fifteen minutes of landing before you go.
- If something gets overwhelming, we stop. You get a hand signal in phase two and I honor it every time, no discussion, no talking you into one more set.
Credentials
- Degree
- MSW, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- License
- NC LCSW #C012948, North Carolina; also licensed in South Carolina
- EMDR training
- EMDRIA-certified therapist (certified, not trained-only)
- Additional training
- Attachment-focused EMDR · Flash technique · Somatic anchoring for dissociation
- Years in practice
- 9
- Populations served
- Adults 18+, first responders, healthcare workers, perinatal clients
- NPI
- 1730492756
Things I'm not
- I'm not a blank slate — I'll react, and you'll know what I think.
- I don't do court evaluations, custody letters, disability determinations, or ESA letters.
- I'm not a prescriber, and I won't ask you to change your medication to work with me.
- I'm not the right fit for active psychosis, acute substance withdrawal, or an eating disorder needing a medical team — and I'll refer you well rather than trying anyway.
- I'm not available between sessions for crisis support. That's what 988 and your local crisis line are built for, and I'll say so plainly at intake.
If any of that sounded like the right room, let's talk.
Fifteen minutes on the phone or video. You can ask me anything, including whether I've worked with something like yours before.