The Training Behind the Work

Why I Do This Work

I came to this work the way most specialists do — through a combination of clinical calling and personal experience. I know what it is to have the ground disappear beneath you. I know the particular disorientation of discovering that the person closest to you was living a life you didn’t know about. I know what it feels like in the body before you have words for it.

That personal knowledge is not incidental to my clinical work. It is central to it. It means I don’t need you to explain what it feels like to check a phone for the hundredth time, or to sit across from someone you used to trust and feel like a stranger. I already understand. What I bring is that understanding, combined with 25 years of clinical training and the specific expertise to help you move through it.

I became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in 2001. In the years since, I have worked with hundreds of women navigating the aftermath of intimate betrayal — each one arriving convinced she was broken beyond repair, each one discovering that she was not. That work never stops mattering to me.

Betrayal is first a nervous system event before it is a relationship decision. When we treat it that way — when we start with the body instead of the story — everything changes.

How I Work

My work is grounded in the neuroscience of trauma. Before we talk about your relationship, your decisions, or what comes next, we work with your nervous system. We help your body understand that the immediate threat has passed — because until it does, no amount of talking will reach the part of you that most needs to heal.

I am an EMDRIA-certified EMDR therapist trained in Attachment-Focused EMDR with Laurel Parnell. I am a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT) and Certified Partner Trauma Therapist (CPTT) through IITAP — the gold standard certifications for this specific population. These are not general therapy credentials. They are specialized training for exactly the situation you are in.

My practice follows the Woodland Pathways Model — a structured five-stage framework that moves women from crisis stabilization through clarification, reclamation, integration, and ultimately into a life that is fully and deliberately their own. Forgiveness is never a treatment goal. Your healing is not contingent on any decision you make about your relationship.

Who I Am Outside This Work

I live in the Leavenworth area of Washington State — Cascade Mountain country, where the light through the pines in the morning is enough to remind you that the world is still beautiful even when everything feels broken. I believe that deeply, and I carry it into my work.

Most mornings you’ll find me walking with Maddie, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, on the trails near home. Those walks are not incidental — they are part of how I stay regulated, grounded, and present enough to do this work well. I practice what I ask of my clients: intentional daily rhythms, reflective journaling, and time in nature as a genuine therapeutic resource.

I believe that healing is not a destination you arrive at once and declare finished. It is a practice — one that looks different at 45 than at 30, and different again at 60. I am 63, and I am still learning what it means to live well. That ongoing learning is, I think, what makes me a better therapist.

What This Practice Is — and Is Not

You don’t have to keep carrying this alone. There is a way through — and it starts with your nervous system, not your decisions.