About Me

I grew up in a small town in East Texas and attended an undergraduate program at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA). I went on to complete my Master's degree in experimental psychology at SFA and worked as a professional police K-9 handler and trainer. After completing the program at SFA, I moved to south Florida and attended Nova Southeastern University, where I completed a Master's degree in clinical psychology, a Master's degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.

 

In addition to my clinical work at Heartland Counseling, I am a part-time faculty member at Wheaton College and the Associate Director of the Center for Rural Psychology.

 

Counseling Style

I typically like to begin from a very practical and problem-solving orientation in therapy to reduce the impact of the things we can change right away. Some symptoms can be addressed in a short period of time (like insomnia) and others require a long-term focus (such as mending troubling relationships). I feel I am able to be very directive in therapy when it will benefit the goals of my clients, and can be very non-directive and empathic when what is most needed is a supportive environment to explore one's difficulties. I believe that the highest level of satisfaction one can achieve comes from learning to form and maintain healthy and happy relationships, and to get to a point in life where we can make decisions based on our goals rather than our fears.

 

Specialties

Psychopharmacology / Medication Consultation

Marital Therapy

Police & Military Therapy Needs

Serious Mental Illness

Continuing Education Presentations

 

 

 

 

Hobbies and Interests

My primary hobby is scuba diving and competitive freediving (breath-hold diving). I have been diving for 15 years, and hold 21 scuba instructor certifications. I recently had the pleasure of training with the current world-record holder in breath-hold diving, which was one of the coolest experiences in my life. I love spearfishing on weekends and filming underwater shipwrecks. I went to Florida earlier this summer to train for Freediving, and increased my personal best breath-hold dive to 117 feet, and my personal best static breath-hold to just over 4 minutes.