Like many of us, I came to this work not from a straight line, but through the winding paths of inquiry—politics, faith, and deeply personal challenges. A native of northern Virginia and the DC metro area, I initially sought clarity and purpose through the study of politics during college. How do societies change? How do people move together toward positive transformation? How can I be a part of changing the world for the better? These questions led me to become a community organizer in Charlottesville and Seattle, and later to be at the legislature in Virginia. But somewhere along the way, I realized that collective transformation means little without personal transformation—and that the deepest change often begins within.
So I turned inward. I studied psychology throughout graduate school, and spent my days immersed in the science of well-being and the depths of human suffering. I worked alongside Dr. Todd Kashdan at George Mason University, researching what fosters resilience and decreases political polarization, and Dr. Dave Jobes at Catholic University, researching suicide and what keeps us from ending our own lives. My Master’s and Doctoral work explores suicide prevention—not just as a clinical abstraction, but as a human reality elucidated through qualitative stories and quantitative precision. And all the while, I kept wondering: How can we walk with our pain without letting it define us? How can we align our lives with what truly matters, even when the path is unclear or hard?
These are the questions that guide my practice as therapist and lifelong student of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT teaches us to make room for what hurts without letting it own us—to stand gently with our fear, our doubt, our grief—and then to take committed action toward a meaningful life. My work with clients is grounded in compassion, informed by science, and animated by a belief that transformation is possible, even beautiful. This, too, is part of the work—learning to notice and cherish the wonder in the ordinary. Outside of therapy, I savor the small joys: discovering the best bites in D.C., practicing the art (and terrors) of public speaking, and daydreaming of seeing all four tennis Grand Slams live.