Being human is hard. Sometimes we don’t even realize how much we've been struggling until something forces us to slow down, and we can no longer ignore all the emotions we’ve spent years avoiding by staying “too busy” to feel. It can be big, scary, and overwhelming. And it’s often much easier to face when you don’t have to do it alone.
This became clear to me when the pandemic abruptly stripped away my distractions, leading to my own mental health crisis. In that stillness, I began to see how deeply I had "learned" that safety meant being accepted by others. Emotional outsourcing (a gentler way of describing behaviors often labeled codependency, people-pleasing, or perfectionism) and self-abandonment felt safer than authenticity and self-advocacy. And I realized that I had spent so much of my life attuning to other people’s needs that I'd lost all sense of who I was outside of my relationships. Relearning how to listen inward became a turning point.
My own healing journey has included yoga, meditation, and a lot of meaningful therapy with a few incredible therapists. Yours may look entirely different, because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to healing. I consider it a privilege to help clients discover what healing looks and feels like for them.
As a counseling intern at Madison Psychotherapy Center, I offer a holistic, trauma-informed, and collaborative approach grounded in both professional training and lived experience. Our work is rooted in authentic connection and may include talk therapy, psychoeducation, nervous system regulation, mindfulness, breathwork, gentle movement, somatic integration, and skills drawn from ACT, CBT, and DBT. I also offer Brainspotting as a gentle and powerful way to work with stuck emotions and deeply held beliefs.