My work is centered upon an offering of conditions that, with our joint commitment, have the capacity to co-create profound and lasting healing of developmental and complex trauma, deepen a sense of meaning and life purpose, and relieve layers of suffering.  Along with a background in trauma studies, I draw from psychodynamic, relational, and Jungian theory, feminism, eco-therapy, the transpersonal, mythology and folklore, and holding social context, including systems of oppression.  

 I offer a collaborative and confidential relationship based on acceptance, empathy, curiosity, respect, and mutual commitment. 

I meet my clients in a process of looking deeply into themselves with empathic understanding.

When we are able to see times of loss as inevitable and, in a very real way, necessary, we are able to engage these moments and cultivate the art of living well, of metabolizing suffering into something beautiful and ultimately sacred. It may be strange to imagine grief leading to beauty, but imagine, for a moment, the shining face of someone who has just released [their] cup of tears standing before us naked and cleansed.

-Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow

But if I could keep marking my presence on the earth, on tables, on scrap paper, if I could keep telling the story, if I could keep making words on the page tell the story, then maybe I could hang on.

- Deborah Miranda 

Art makes the invisible visible. -Paul Klee

Expressive Arts Therapy is a container able to hold the felt sense of our experience in a way that words alone can not.  Given its foundation in the imagistic and symbolic realms of our psychic landscapes, expressive arts therapy is highly effective and a treatment of choice in addressing trauma and creating change. 

Our social context instructs us to seek symptom relief.  However, as we are able to engage our creative inner-landscapes, no matter how troubled, with skillful companionship, we find not only greater resilience, but a greater sense of meaning, inner-riches, and senses of wonder, awe, and aliveness.

So come to the pond, 

or the river of your imagination, 

or the harbor of your longing, 

and put your lips to the world.  

And live your life.

-Mary Oliver, Red Bird

You cannot, you cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.

-Audre Lorde