Background & Credentials
My work is built on a foundation of lived experience, scholarly training, and deep clinical exposure. What follows is not a resume, but a map of how I came to do this work—the intersections of my own healing, my academic pursuit of understanding, and my commitment to showing up for clients with both knowledge and genuine comprehension of what they're navigating.
I don't offer credentials as a badge. I offer them as evidence that I've invested in understanding the science behind what I witnessed in my own life, and that I continue to stay engaged with cutting-edge research and practice.
"I bring together lived experience, academic training, and trauma-informed practice to create a modality designed specifically for complex trauma survivors."
30+ Years
Brand Strategy & Marketing
Expertise in understanding audience psychology, identity formation, and narrative strategy
Advanced Training
Psychology (PhD Track)
Doctoral-level study in trauma research, attachment theory, human sexuality, and lifespan development
1,500+ Hours
Clinical Training
Exposure to ketamine-assisted therapy, psilocybin-supported frameworks, and trauma-informed modalities
30+ Years in Brand Strategy & Marketing
Three decades of experience in brand development, messaging, and human-centered communication has taught me how stories shape identity, how identity shapes behavior, and how the narratives we inherit often limit the narratives we can imagine for ourselves.
My work in brand strategy was grounded in understanding audience psychology, the psychology of identity formation, and the power of narrative to change how people see themselves. This expertise proved directly applicable to coaching—because trauma recovery is, fundamentally, about reclaiming the power to rewrite your own narrative.
Key Areas of Expertise:
- • Understanding audience psychology and identity formation
- • Narrative strategy and messaging that resonates at the identity level
- • Leadership across multiple businesses and creative direction
- • Client relations and organizational development
"I learned how to listen—not just to words, but to the psychology beneath them. How to see patterns in how people narrate their own lives. How to recognize the stories that limit us and the possibility of choosing different ones."
This skill—the ability to see the narrative patterns that shape lives—became foundational to my work as a trauma-informed coach. Because healing from trauma means learning to tell yourself a new story about what happened and who you are.
Doctoral-Level Training in Psychology
"I returned to higher education to pursue advanced study in psychology—not because I needed validation, but because I needed understanding. I needed to bridge the gap between what I experienced and what science could explain about trauma, attachment, and the human capacity for healing."
I pursued doctoral-level training in psychology to understand the science behind my own survival, and to bring evidence-based frameworks to the lived experience I carry. This academic foundation allows me to speak both the language of neuroscience and the language of human experience.
Academic Focus:
- • Trauma research and understanding how trauma shapes development
- • Attachment theory and the impact of early relational ruptures
- • Human sexuality and the psychology of sexual trauma
- • Human development across the lifespan
- • Specialized study on early ruptures, identity fragmentation, and developmental derailments
This training allows me to understand not just what happened to my clients, but how and why it shaped their brains, their bodies, their decisions, and their capacity for trust and safety.
1,500+ Clinical Training Hours in Alternative Treatment Modalities
Beyond traditional academic training, I have invested over 1,500 hours in direct clinical exposure to emerging and alternative treatment modalities for trauma. This is framed ethically—not as a provider credential, but as deep, hands-on understanding of how cutting-edge approaches work with complex trauma survivors.
Ketamine-Assisted Therapy
Extensive exposure to ketamine-assisted treatment models and how non-ordinary states of consciousness can facilitate trauma processing, memory integration, and healing for treatment-resistant depression and complex PTSD.
Psilocybin-Supported Therapeutic Frameworks
Deep understanding of psilocybin-assisted therapy protocols, how these frameworks support profound shifts in perspective for trauma survivors, and the neurobiological mechanisms underlying healing in non-ordinary states.
Trauma-Informed Care Across Modalities
Experience observing and supporting multidisciplinary teams working with trauma-impacted clients in clinical settings, bringing informed perspective on how different modalities complement one another.
What This Training Offers My Clients
I bring informed awareness of cutting-edge trauma treatment approaches. While I don't provide these interventions directly, I understand their mechanisms and can help clients navigate decisions about these options, understand the neurobiology of trauma processing, and integrate insights from these fields into our coaching work.
Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
I carry informed perspective on how consciousness, memory, trauma, and healing intersect. This allows me to meet clients who are exploring or have explored these modalities with genuine understanding and clinical awareness.
"I've witnessed how these modalities can catalyze profound shifts. This knowledge informs my work and allows me to meet clients as whole people navigating complex healing paths."
What My Credentials Enable—And What They Don't
What I Offer
- ✓ Trauma-informed coaching grounded in lived experience
- ✓ Guidance on attachment, identity, and healing patterns
- ✓ Skill-building and evidence-based frameworks
- ✓ Support for adoption-related questions and concerns
- ✓ Specialized support for survivors of sexual trauma
- ✓ Workshops, training, and speaking engagements
What I Don't Offer
- ✗ Clinical diagnosis or mental health treatment
- ✗ Prescriptions or medication management
- ✗ Clinical therapy (I complement therapeutic work, not replace it)
- ✗ Crisis intervention (I refer to appropriate resources)
- ✗ Ketamine or psilocybin facilitation
My credentials are designed to support clients who are seeking guidance, meaning-making, and skill-building grounded in both scholarly understanding and lived experience. If you're looking for clinical treatment, medication management, or crisis support, I'll help connect you to the right resources.
The best healing journey often includes multiple types of support.
Why This Combination of Experience Matters
Theory + Lived Experience
I don't teach from psychology textbooks alone. I teach from the work I've done to understand my own attachment ruptures, survival patterns, and the long arc of my own healing.
The Adoption Triad
I am a transracial adoptee, a transracial adoptive parent, and a birth mother. I understand adoption from every angle—the identity questions, the losses, the cultural complexities, and the lifelong reverberations.
Creative + Clinical
Brand strategy taught me how narrative shapes identity. Psychology taught me how trauma disrupts development. Together, they inform how I help clients rewrite the stories they tell about themselves.
This combination—decades of creative leadership, doctoral-level psychology training, extensive clinical exposure, and hard-won lived experience—creates a unique modality. I'm not offering you credentials on a wall. I'm offering you a guide who has studied the terrain extensively and walked the path personally.
Ready to Work Together?
My credentials exist to serve you—to give you confidence that you're working with someone who has invested deeply in understanding trauma, attachment, adoption, and healing. If this resonates, let's talk.