RDT, LCAS-A

I am an adjunct professor for graduate students in the department of counseling psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies, a trauma and embodiment researcher and experiential therapist in private practice based in Wilmington, NC. Currently in my final year as a PhD student in Depth Psychology with a focus on Integrated Therapy and Healing Practices, I am a Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist Associate and credentialed as a Registered Drama Therapist (RDT) by the North American Drama Therapy Association, with a background as an educator, artist, trainer and creative consultant. I received my Master's degree from New York University and have been working with individuals, groups, partnerships, families and organizations across the US and in the UK for over a decade toward their goals for healing, growth and change.

My clinical experience includes serving as a creative & expressive arts therapist on inpatient psychiatric units with individuals with severe and and persistent mental illnesses, as a primary therapist in individual and group outpatient treatment with folks recovering from trauma, disordered eating and addiction to substances, as a primary and admissions clinician for one of the nation's premiere PACT (Program for Assertive Community Treatment) programs, and in private practice. The depth and breadth of my clinical training and experience empowers my clients to explore both traditional talk therapy methods (with training in Internal Family Systems, Motivational Interviewing, Mentalization, Jungian Somatics and Dreamwork) and creative arts therapy methods including role play, improvisation, psychodrama, movement, music and visual art making, storytelling, expressive writing, therapeutic performance and other creative interventions with opportunities for verbal processing and integration, to help people create and practice the changes they want to see in their lives.

Additionally, I’ve had the privilege of providing clinical consultation for professional theatre companies as well as post-performance processing for actors and audience members on the 2017 Off-Broadway production of Occupied Territories. Closely associated with this work, I’ve facilitated multiple therapeutic workshops centering Vietnam and other veterans of war and their family members in collaboration with professional theatre artists. From 2017 - 2021, I provided consultation, playshops and therapeutic processing for students, staff and audiences at Playmakers Repertory Company at UNC-Chapel Hill, Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh and served as Drama Therapist in Residence for RhinoLeap Productions in Asheboro, NC. My publications include two scholarly articles in the Drama Therapy Review, highlighting my ongoing research interest in utilizing therapeutic performance as a primary approach to treating various experiences of trauma. My doctoral dissertation research will aim to address the ways ritual performance evoking the Wild Woman archetype may activate the epigenetic trauma of the Witch Wound in the white, American female psyche.

Who I Really Am

I grew up in a lower/working class family in Durham, North Carolina. Like many people, my early life and family relationships were impacted by the trauma of addiction, abuse and mental illness. There was also lots of light and laughter and a relationship with Spirit/God/Goddess/Creator/Great Mystery/Source/Higher Power that I have always known as a Love that was truer than true, beyond my bones, eternal and everlasting. Though I grew up in the southern baptist church and often had to work through the lies and dogma that tried to tell me God was a very angry man in the sky with weirdly homicidal tendencies, I was blessed to be able to sense into a truer story about a divine Love that made me, the Love that holds and guides me, the God Who Only Knows Four Words: Come Dance With Me (Hafiz). 

I have been seeking after and sought by that Love my whole life. This life has not been an easy one - I’m a survivor, just like you are, just like we all are. And Love has been t/here the whole time. I’d be happy to share more of my personal story with you. If you’re ever curious, just ask; I’m an open book. We’re on this journey together as fellow travellers, it turns out. Some roles I’ve played include professional performer, teacher, student, lost and broken one, worker, sister, daughter, friend, mentor, trauma survivor, addict, wife, divorcee and many more. Who I really am is just a person like you who wants to come alongside and help to make the life that Love wants for you a reality. Nothing is certain in this work. There are no guarantees. But when nothing is certain, anything is possible. And it would be my honor and privilege to play in the unlimited possible-ness of the Love that is always loving us together.