Why did you choose to affiliate with Get Centered Counseling, Coaching, and Wellness?
I gravitated to Get Centered knowing I would have the ability to serve my clients in a more holistic approach. Get Centered encourages collaboration within the counseling team and with different types of providers. By having access to other providers, with similar and varying expertise, I feel I have more to offer clients than I would as a sole provider. I truly believe by addressing multiple dimensions of wellness we can create opportunities to find a greater sense of fulfillment and the health we need to live a purposeful life.
Why should a client come to see you? What makes you different from other service providers?
Well, I don’t know if this makes me different, but I chose to become a Clinical Mental Health Counselor later in life. I had spent 20 years in Corporate America and Human Resource Consulting when I noticed a gap in therapy services. When family members were needing help we found it difficult to find a good fit. And moving from one provider to the next was complicated. So I left my work and went back to school with the intention of being a different type of therapist; one that focused on educating clients on strategies to use in their daily lives, delivered empirical-based approaches to counseling, created a space to breathe and maybe for a moment a chance to feel joy. I think about my time with clients as an opportunity to sort out one’s strengths and challenges. Then given my life and work experiences I work with a client to add resources and tools into their thinking to promote changes in how they feel and how they respond to situations. I value questions and feedback along the way and truly find joy in the “a-ha” moments of a client. For me therapy isn’t a job or a task to complete, it’s a way of living an intentional life knowing our strengths and how to manage to those when we are in need.
What do you do for fun?
I am outnumbered by males in my family so my life has been filled with some very adventurous fun. I am thankful for those moments even though my eyes were shut more than open, but now it’s the smaller moments that are fun to me. I look forward to the time I can spend with my extended family, walking in a park with my husband and dog, yoga, grabbing coffee or dinner to catch up with friends, reading, movies, and listening to music (one son is a musician) or going to see bands play which now seems like a lifetime ago (another son works lights in music venues). And to be really honest, I put being a counselor in the fun category too.
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