As a licensed midwife intern, I worked in a clinic on the southern border. I provided maternity care to women in the Flathead and in a Mennonite community. I then became certified with the International Infant massage Instructors Association to strengthen bonding and a peaceful start.

It was in the process of supporting women through their pregnancies and births, and connecting with their families that I shined the most.

I saw the impact beliefs about oneself, based on early experiences, had on women’s relationships, and how they experienced birth and parenting. I saw how a mother’s connection to her body affected how she touched her baby. I realized I wanted to be a counselor when I grew up!

I graduated with a masters in clinical mental health counseling from Adams State University in Colorado. At the Counseling Center at our local Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) I helped students juggle independence, new financial responsibilities, relationships, and career choices. I then provided intensive school-based therapy for kids and adolescents with severe emotional disturbances (SED) for Logan Health Hospital. A lot of these kids had grown up in homes with mental illness, abuse, alcoholism, meth addiction, incarceration, poverty, and intergenerational pain. Some kids, stuck in the foster care system, had even less trust in adults. It was exciting and exhausting work! Ready to be free of covid masks in schools and to work with truly motivated clients, I opened my private practice in Whitefish.