Approach

I draw on several perspectives in my counseling, including person-centered, solution-focused, and strengths-based methods, and I incorporate cognitive-behavioral and social-emotional learning frameworks when a student’s needs call for them. At my core, I am a person-centered, solution-focused practitioner. I believe the students I serve are the experts on their own lives and already carry many of the solutions within them. My job is to help them find those solutions — to focus on what is right with the student, to talk about strengths rather than deficits, and to help them define who they are and who they are becoming.

How I Work

• Intake & Assessment I conduct holistic bio-psycho-social assessments with parents, school personnel when appropriate, and the student before beginning counseling — building a broad picture of treatment history, personal and family history, community and cultural influences, and social environment.
• Motivational Interviewing Ambivalence about change is common, especially for adolescents. Helping students work through that ambivalence is how we reach a place where we can address their social, emotional, and mental health needs.
• Brief, Solution-Focused Intervention Every minute a student is with me is a minute they are not in the classroom. My focus is to help each student reach a stable mental and emotional state so they can thrive in their learning.
• Proactive, Tier 1 Instruction Because one-on-one intervention can't reach every student, classroom-level instruction is essential to a healthy school community — including SafeUT and suicide prevention, conflict management, bullying prevention, and healthy relationships.
• Relationship & Rapport Building Strong relationships with students matter immensely, and so do collaborative relationships with teachers, administrators, aides, and parents — including clear referral and consent processes, connecting families to resources, and supporting teachers.
• Confidentiality Working with adolescents involves a real tension between student privacy and parental rights. I set clear expectations with both the student and their guardian from the first meeting, including the limits of confidentiality, and work collaboratively so that neither is ever caught off guard — because surprises erode the trust that everything else depends on.