About
You have the answers.
So, I know this might sound cheesy, but like an acorn knows how to grow into an oak tree with the right combination of sun, water, and soil – you know how to be a person.
You know how to grow into your unique potential, how to feel alive, present, engaged, even when life is hard (as it often is).
It’s okay if you don’t yet believe this. I’ll help you find and read your inner map, and we’ll work together to figure out what combination of nutrients you need to grow.
You’re not alone. It’s a collaboration.
Even if you feel confused by your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, I promise you are in the best position to know what’s right for you.
And we’ll do this together! You won’t be in the forest alone trying to decode a map you don’t yet understand.
I will help you learn how to decipher your codes and navigate the tangled paths. I’ll also help you identify why it’s worth it to you to take the first step down that twisty, mysterious staircase.
You’ll love what you find.
At some point in your life, I bet you’ve felt the power and the freedom that comes with feeling effective in your life. Confronting the monster of fear that you swore would eat you alive and discovering that when you showed up, authentic and courageous, the beast started to feel less powerful and eventually wasn’t frightening at all.
You learned to talk to strangers and present in front of a group. You took a risk in a relationship and found an even greater connection.
I don’t promise it will be like this after only four therapy sessions. Still, I do promise that if you do the work of understanding your automatic reactions and making your thoughts and behaviors explicit and intentional, aligned with your values, you’ll find buried treasure.
And you’ll know that the treasure was there all along waiting for you to uncover it.
This buried treasure is your pivot point.
Your treasure is the powerful, centered force that generates energy and effective action in your life and around which everything else moves.
That treasure also can be the point where you make a different choice to go in another direction.
About Me
I’ve had several major pivot points in my life.
The first was when I went to therapy for the first time in my 20s. I didn’t even know what therapy was back then, and the experience changed the course of my future.
Following that new course took forever! I had to go back to school to take the prerequisites that weren’t part of my business degree, and then it took me another four years to finish my Master’s Degree in Counseling.
Then I divorced and shelved the whole career change because I didn’t have the emotional energy to handle two significant life changes at the same time. A decade passed before I was finally thrown back into my career change. This event upended life as my family knew it. My mom was in a terrible car accident, and she didn’t recover. I vividly remember standing with a counselor at the Hospice and hearing a clear voice in my head: “There are no guarantees. If you truly want to change careers, do it now.” I want to tell you it was easy-peasy and Voila, everything changed! In truth, it was an agonizing process that moved like frozen molasses!
Creating an anti-depressant lifestyle…
I guess there are naturally happy people, and if I was one of them, I doubt I would’ve become a therapist. I wouldn’t have ever searched for what happiness really means to me. I tend to look for meaning, engagement, and vitality over happy.
I’m not entirely sure what it means to be happy, but I know that as soon as someone asks the question, “Are you happy?” all happiness runs for the nearest exit! For me, happiness is fleeting, but curiosity, meaning, and commitment to my values endure even in the hardest of times.
But am I fascinated? Hell, yeah! I’m fascinated and curious all the time, and I love knowing there will always be new things to learn about myself, others, and the world in which we live.
I’ve had to work at finding joy and building, over the years, what I think of as an anti-depressant lifestyle. For me, this means tons of time outside adventuring with my dog (he never met a dumpster he didn’t like), cake and ice cream, lots of sleep, and carefully balancing time between my partner and time alone with my books.
Keeping myself sane and balanced takes quite a bit of work, and I’ve had to accept that I’m a little high maintenance as highly sensitive people tend to be.
Starting my practice was one of several major pivot points.
I was reading a book on cognitive therapy for ADHD and stumbled on the concept of a “pivot point.” I’ve always been fascinated with processes, initially in the corporate world. I learned how to build a system of technology and human behaviors that work effectively to get a job done efficiently. This interest in being effective has transferred over into how I understand human change and growth.
Behavioral analysis is nothing new, but the idea of a pivot point highlights the way we can break a process down (thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) to locate key places in a sequence of events where we can take a different approach and create a new and improved outcome.
This concept of a pivot point was a revelation for me, and it helped me learn to break my behaviors down into individual components and experiment with change.
When it came time to create a business name, I knew Pivot Point was it.
Licensure and Education
I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Decision & Information Systems from University of Maryland, College Park in 1999. A few years later, I returned to school to complete undergraduate coursework in Psychology in order to be able to apply to Masters in Counseling programs. In 2010, I earned my Master’s degree in Counseling from University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Credentialed by the State of Colorado, I hold licenses as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC.0017546) and a Licensed Addiction Counselor (ACD.0002617).
Find center and move forward
If you’re intrigued and hopeful about learning to decipher your inner map and excited about finding places in your life where you can make real change, I hope you’ll call me for a free consultation.