USER

I am a nationally certified counselor and a licensed professional clinical counselor supervisor in the states of Ohio and Texas with past licensure in the state of Tennessee.  I have been working in the mental health field since 1999 beginning with a summer student worker position at Western Psychiatric Institute in Pittsburgh, PA. Since then, I have been in a variety of roles at differing levels of care within state funded and private contracting agencies in Tennesse, Virginia, Texas, and Ohio. With over ten years of experience in community mental health that involved collaborative planning and care with both juvenile justice and school systems, I believe I have a useful perspective on the inter-relationship between mental health concerns and its effects on the family, schools, and greater community as well as the importance of inter-professional treatment modalities.  I specialize in working with children and families experiencing cyclical crisis, symptoms related to trauma experience, and suicide related behaviors (i.e. non-suicidal self-injury/self-directed violence).  Since 2009 I have published 29 articles in professional peer-reviewed journals in medicine, counseling, and psychology and given numerous professional presentations and workshops on topics related to gender issues in counseling, suicide related behaviors, interdisciplinary approaches to treatment of health concerns (e.g. insomnia), non-suicidal self-injury, and other practice issues.