Who am I anyway?

After moving from West Texas to Los Angeles in the early 2000s with a brand new Bachelor’s degree in Health Studies with an emphasis in Community Health, I spent eight years working in domestic, newborn adoptions. I worked with women who were pregnant and planning to create an adoption plan for their baby from birth, in addition to working with the prospective adoptive families hoping to adopt a baby and create a family. It was high stakes and high pressure to be intimately involved in the dissolution of one family and the creation of another. The part of the job that resonated the most was holding space for everyone in the process who was going through the most painful, scary, difficult, and often beautiful part of their life to that point.

It was a natural progression to make a later-in-life career change, go to graduate school, and become a therapist. During graduate school, I also worked as a Family Planning Counselor in two school-based health clinics in South Los Angeles. My days were spent gently educating and holding space for teenagers and their most ‘embarrassing’ reproductive health questions helped, in order to empower them to make the best choices for their bodies and future. I worked to make it safe and fun to learn and therefore, reduce the stigma surrounding reproductive and sexual health.

I graduated from Phillips Graduate University in 2017 with a 4.0 and a Master’s Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy, and have been a practicing therapist since 2016. I love being a therapist. I am grateful and honored to be able continue to sit with my clients through painful, scary, difficult, and beautiful parts of their lives to this point.

I am a fierce supporter of reproductive rights, especially being from Texas, and even moreso now that I, myself, am a mother. I believe that Black Lives Matter. I believe in the humanity of immigrants. I believe that Love is Love. I believe that we are all doing the best we can, even if it is not very good sometimes. I am trauma-informed and VERY Neurodivergent Affirmative.