I completed the Grief, Loss, and Trauma Certification while in graduate school at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The program combined experiential, introspective, and expressive approaches to understanding issues of death and dying, grief counseling, trauma resolution and hospice work. I have provided psycho-education on grief and grief counseling in many settings. I have created and facilitated suicide bereavement groups for both adults and teens in New Mexico. When my community experienced an increase of teen suicides, I took the lead and co-created events for National Suicide Prevention Week in the county of Los Alamos. I have provided support at memorials, funerals, and to groups in the civilian sector and for the military population.

I studied under Dr. Janet Schreiber, an internationally recognized expert in her field. I trained with her in graduate school and at the Santa Fe Survivors of Suicide in New Mexico. She not only taught me how to lead and facilitate the groups, but how it feels to be a member. I attended the meetings each week and experienced the power of community and groups. It took me seven months of being part of the group, to say aloud the name of someone I lost to suicide. I have experienced many losses to suicide and understand the complexities it brings, but I never expected it would take seven months to say my friends name. Grief is a personal and intimate process that is unique to each of us. 

Rev. Dr. Ted Wiard Ed.D., LPCC, CGC, the co-founder of Golden Willow Retreat in Taos, New Mexico, introduced me to the phases of grief vs. the five stages. He was a professor at my graduate school and also mentored me in facilitating grief groups in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His story and teachings shifted my relationship to grief and I have shared his wisdom  and teachwith many on my travels. However, it was my own experience in loss and tragedy that I learned the most. 

I have been bare bones; taken to my core mentally, spiritually, physically, and financially. In 2019, I was unexpectedly hospitalized, underwent two major surgeries that included skin grafts, diagnosed with blood cancer, and received a bone marrow transplant all within 5 months (4 1/2 months I lived in the hospital). In 2020 I received my bone marrow transplant and was in recovery when Covid-19 shut down the world. My treatment was successful, but the engrafting and recovery took several years. I had to social distance to protect my immune system and I spent most of my time in deep thought and discovering what matters most. My experience brought death of all I was, relationships, and world views, but it was not until my 3 year transplant anniversary, I realized I had been grieving the woman who was hospitalized. She no longer existed and my past felt like a different lifetime. I was taken to depths I didn’t know existed and then my understanding of “You can only take someone as far as you’ve gone” shifted as I learned to live and love again.

I have spent years studying the healing arts and have discovered that the art of healing comes in many forms. What works for one person may not work for another and sometimes what worked before, just doesn’t anymore. The path to peace may look different for each of us, but we don’t have to navigate alone. I am trauma-informed therapist and I invite my clients to be an active participant in their care. My approach is organic, eclectic, and personalized; offering holistic approaches and evidence-based practices to meet each client's needs.