My Counseling Philosophy

At its core, counseling is about the relationship. What good is my education and experience if a client doesn’t feel safe and comfortable with me? To that end, I aim to build strong, safe relationships with my clients, and from that foundation we navigate whatever brought them to my office door.

Relationship building involves looking for what’s going well, what clients are good at, what their values are and what they like to do. When we look beyond diagnoses or deficits, we create opportunities to build insight and growth.

I believe in empowering clients to be autonomous - clients should know they have the ultimate say in what happens in their lives. Knowledge, insight, and understanding are critical components to fostering autonomy, particularly for neurodivergent clients. When neurodivergent clients understand themselves, and the way their unique nervous systems operate, they are able to move away from confusion or shame or other difficult internal experiences. They are able to build resilience, and develop useful, neurodiversity affirming ways of coping and navigating the world. I aim to equip clients with the tools needed to achieve to a sense of capability and confidence.  

My Style

My style is fairly relaxed. I aim to put clients at ease. Counseling can be difficult, life can be, too. I think it’s not only useful but necessary to balance some of that out with a little humor and lightness. I would say this is typically well-received, but of course I would.