I have always been fascinated by the bonus features that reveal what happens behind the scenes of the films and television shows that I love. I have an endless curiosity for all of the details and inner workings that come together to ultimately create the final picture of what is presented on screen. What the viewer sees is meticulously edited, filtered for an audience, and seemingly perfect, but I’ve always wanted to get beneath the surface to understand the intricacies that make up what we see.

While I believed that I wanted to be a movie director growing up, I realized during college that, while I was fascinated with film production, I wanted a career built on creating meaningful connections with people. My interest in getting “behind the scenes” wasn’t just for movies; it was also about understanding our inner workings as humans. So somewhat fearfully, but hopefully, I made the decision to transition my path to becoming a clinical psychologist.

Growing up with a twin sister, my identity has always been shaped by my understanding of who I am in connection with someone else. Like anyone who is relational by nature, I’ve also had to navigate the harm caused by certain relationships in my life. I’ll be honest – some deeply impacted my sense of self-worth. Through trials filled with both successes and hardships (and a whole lot of therapy!), I learned that not only was I allowed to have a voice but that I actually needed to use it in my relationships with others if I wanted to be truly known. As I continued to develop a deeper sense of myself, my worth slowly uncoupled from my perception of how people viewed me. Fueled by this feeling of freedom and empowered by evidence-based psychological practices, it is a privilege to now help others experience peace from harmful relationships, dysfunctional patterns of behavior, and distorted views of self.

As a woman of size, my relationship to my own body was one of the most traumatic bonds I experienced early on. Deprograming the messages of diet culture, fatphobia, and weight stigma was incredibly challenging, but necessary, work and now strongly informs my guiding mission as a therapist. Using a foundation of concepts from Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating, I have been incredibly fortunate to work with several individuals as they resist and change the message that their self-worth is determined by the numbers on the scale or the size of our pants.

As intrigued as I am by the special effects that create the images we see on screen, as a clinician I consider it an ethical imperative to fully develop an understanding of the intricacies that have formed my clients into the people that sit across from me during our time together. Guided by interpersonal process theory, I work to gain an intimate understanding of the many events and relationships that have formed my clients’ sense of self in relation to others, the world, and their body. In the work I do, we heal maladaptive relationships and unpack, challenge, and redefine the dysfunctional messages that my clients have been given so that they are fully able to see, own, and proclaim their value as an imperfectly worthy human being.