​​Education:

Ph.D. in Depth Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2009-2014

Dissertation: Dreams during pregnancy; On the psychoid archetype

M.S., Counseling, Portland State University, 2005-2007

Neo-psychoanalytic and family systems work; children, marriage and family track with a focus on gender and sexuality

B.A., English, Minor in Spanish, University of Iowa, 1998-2002

Nominated to study two times at the University of Iowa's Undergraduate Poetry Writer’s Workshop, (based on my portfolio)

Study abroad in Merida, Venezuela (1998) and Mysore, India (2001)​​​​​​

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Experience:

​Licensed Professional Counselor 0020529 in Colorado

Licensed Professional Counselor C3916 in Oregon

Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor 068.0134396 in Vermont

 

Ananda Psychotherapy, LLC, 2016 - Currently (Clinical Supervisor/ Director)

Oregon Health Authority, Behavioral Health Student Loan Repayment Program, Approved Site

Individual and relationship work for adults, relationships, and families

Specializing in dreams, the subtle body, GLBTQIA+, depression and anxiety, spirituality, artists, & the birth-death-rebirth archetype​

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Interests:

Dance (Bharatanatyam, Fusion, Hip Hop, Modern, Swing) and Theater background (Ames & Iowa City, IA, Portland, Oregon, SF bay area, and Santa Barbara, CA)​

Holotropic Breathwork, with Stan and Christina Grof, SF Bay Area, 2008

Outward Bound; canoeing, portaging, rock climbing, Adirondacks, NY (Summer 2003)

Hiked the Annapurnas Base Camp Trek (7 days, 10-15 miles per day) and training around the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal, December 2001)

Advaita Vedanta and the philosopher, Sankara, Intensive Study (Melkote, India, 2001)

University of Iowa Librarian (& Iowa City Public Library) 1999-2001

Improv - Jazz singer/ poet (Houston, TX, Summer of '98, Portland, OR, 2002-2004, Venice, Italia & Prague, Czech Republic, Fall of 2012)

Radio college station DJ (Ames, Iowa, 1997)

Assistant (Water & Soil Quality Testing) Seed Science Center, Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Summers, 1996-1997)

Playing chess with my family​​​

 

​​Travel:

India (1987, 1995, 2001,) Venezuela (1998 & 1999,) Nepal &  The Netherlands (2001,) Canada (2002 & 2024,) Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica (2010,) Malta, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Morrocco (2012,) Mexico (2011 & 2016,) Italy (2012 & 2017,) Germany, Austria, Croatia, Montenegro, France (2017,) Spain (2012 & 2017.)​​​​
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For 20 years, I have been gifted and guided by those who have impacted me with their stories. I am constructed of them now, more so than my first 25 years sometimes. I am both. 

 

I will gladly follow you down a spiritual rabbit hole of existential meaning-making, as well as sit with the emptiness and the lack. Expression is stealing fire from the gods and the price is hefty. I often work with artists as they are paying this price in service of warmth and fire given to humanity. We will follow your myth, to know the narrative of what you are living and if, perhaps, it has changed… if you have changed… into another myth entirely that has a constellation, that is archetypal at its core. 

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The Jungian camp says the purpose of psychotherapy is for God to come into knowing itself through the ripening of consciousness... as we share pinpoints of the spark within, as we ripen to consciousness as individual expressions of divinity. I throughly enjoy my clients and ways they have ripened my consciousness, developing understanding as we forage together.

 

A client told me, what was really important to her was to see my travel experience reflected here, as much as my educational journey, so in the vein of listening to those I listen to, I will include that here. I relate and resonate with others who have multiple senses of belongings, whether it is to place or internal landscapes. I love those who are adventurers and who know they belong to more than one leaning. I don’t think of myself as an adventurer, or didn’t… until I saw how many of my clients did have multiple belongings to the world around identity and place... and ways I am tangibly hands-on with the world and what place brings up in me. I resonate deeply with Walt Whitman saying, “I contain multitudes,” and feel in service to others who are similar. 

 

They say the first dream brought in tells us why a person is here. I invite you to bring in a dream, either from the past or that is recent. Sometimes we have a dream the night before therapy starts that tells us the truth of where we are presently, outside of the many stories and narratives we are given. It can be a more accurate depiction, of what's unfolding and the evolution of your story.