I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Austin, Texas. As a psychotherapist, I seek to integrate my own experiences and background into my work as a Counselor.
I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and spent time hunting and fishing in the Hill Country. As an adolescent, I was certified as a Huntmaster through Texas Parks and Wildlife and volunteered with the Texas Youth Hunting Program to facilitate outdoor experiences for children.
Through Middle School school jazz bands, garage bands, and an 1997 ZZ Top concert I developed a love of music. I attended the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and received a B.A. in Contemporary Music. For the next 10 years, I worked in Santa Fe and Austin as an audio engineer for concerts, theater, and the recording studio. During that time, I also played bass and sang in rock bands and nervously wrung my hands regarding my future as an artist.
After a 2-year detour into nursing college, my own psychotherapy propelled me into St. Edward's University to gain my M.A. in Counseling to become a psychotherapist. I served my post-graduate internship at IPNB Psychotherapy of Austin (Juliane Taylor-Shore) and the community mental health clinic Capital Area Counseling. Through the close-knit community of therapists in Austin, I've developed specific interests in group therapy, developmental trauma therapy, and neurobiology.
I believe in the power of the mind-body connection and love playing (and injuring myself as a result of) pickup games of basketball and generally staying active. Every year, my friends and I backpack in the wilderness and peer-pressure one another to dip in cold snow-melt waters. In 2016, I completed a 200-Hr.-yoga teacher training from Black Swan Yoga.
Over the years, through travel and friends, I've nurtured an interest in non-Western forms of psychology, including Buddhist Vipassana meditation and the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
I strive to understand how my culture, class, race, gender and sexuality inform my perspective and how best to serve those with backgrounds different from my own.
My continued love of music help me understand the link between our inner worlds and art/creativity. My condo neighbor can attest, I'm diligent about practicing my instrument. Twirling about on the two-step dance floor is also a new love.
With great respect, I still enjoying hunting and fishing at my family's ranch along the Guadalupe River.
Also, I took some classes in improv comedy, so now I'm certifiably humorous.
My relationships with my family, friends, house plants and my old cat sustain me, and, intermittently, so does Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs.
I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and spent time hunting and fishing in the Hill Country. As an adolescent, I was certified as a Huntmaster through Texas Parks and Wildlife and volunteered with the Texas Youth Hunting Program to facilitate outdoor experiences for children.
Through Middle School school jazz bands, garage bands, and an 1997 ZZ Top concert I developed a love of music. I attended the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and received a B.A. in Contemporary Music. For the next 10 years, I worked in Santa Fe and Austin as an audio engineer for concerts, theater, and the recording studio. During that time, I also played bass and sang in rock bands and nervously wrung my hands regarding my future as an artist.
After a 2-year detour into nursing college, my own psychotherapy propelled me into St. Edward's University to gain my M.A. in Counseling to become a psychotherapist. I served my post-graduate internship at IPNB Psychotherapy of Austin (Juliane Taylor-Shore) and the community mental health clinic Capital Area Counseling. Through the close-knit community of therapists in Austin, I've developed specific interests in group therapy, developmental trauma therapy, and neurobiology.
I believe in the power of the mind-body connection and love playing (and injuring myself as a result of) pickup games of basketball and generally staying active. Every year, my friends and I backpack in the wilderness and peer-pressure one another to dip in cold snow-melt waters. In 2016, I completed a 200-Hr.-yoga teacher training from Black Swan Yoga.
Over the years, through travel and friends, I've nurtured an interest in non-Western forms of psychology, including Buddhist Vipassana meditation and the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
I strive to understand how my culture, class, race, gender and sexuality inform my perspective and how best to serve those with backgrounds different from my own.
My continued love of music help me understand the link between our inner worlds and art/creativity. My condo neighbor can attest, I'm diligent about practicing my instrument. Twirling about on the two-step dance floor is also a new love.
With great respect, I still enjoying hunting and fishing at my family's ranch along the Guadalupe River.
Also, I took some classes in improv comedy, so now I'm certifiably humorous.
My relationships with my family, friends, house plants and my old cat sustain me, and, intermittently, so does Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs.
Professional Affiliations and Certifications
- E.M.D.R. Level 1 trained
- American Group Psychotherapy Association Member
- Austin Group Psychotherapy Society Member
- Just Minds Austin Mental Health Group Member
- Austin InConnection Member
- Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 hr.
Completed trainings
- "Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind: Year-long Immersion in Interpersonal Neurobiology" with Bonnie Badenoch and Jo Hadlock-King, Oct. 2021-July 2022
- "Women Group Leaders and Aggression" with Jan Morris, Ph.D., ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, moderator; Ramona Aarsvold, Ph.D.; Jeanne Bunker, LCSW, CGP, FAGPA; Barbara Davis, LCSW-S, CGP; Ani Mirasol, MS, LCSW-S, CGP; Stacy Nakell, LCSW, CGP; Patty Olwell, LPC, CGP; Lavanya Shankar, Ph.D.; Alyson Stone, Ph.D., CGP
- "Sexuality, Hate, Shame, and Abandonment: The Family We Wish We Had and the Group We Can Have" with Jordan Price, LCSW, CGP, Jan. 2020
- "How We Talk About the Power and Value of Group" with: Katie Griffin, LPC, CGP, FAGPA; Jeffrey S. Hudson, M.Ed., LPC, CGP, FAGPA; Randy Frasier, PhD; Tammy Brown, LCSW, CGP, Jan. 2020
- SW Vipassana 10-Day Meditation Courses; Sep. 2019, June 2018, and Sep. 2017
- Ongoing Individual and Group Supervision with Juliane Taylor Shore, LPC-S, LMFT-S, SEP, Aug. 2015-Present
- Ongoing Process Group Consultation w/Katie Griffin, LPC, CGP, FAGPA, Feb. 2019-Present
- AGPS Annual Conference: The Integrated Group Leader: Mindful Leadership Using Internal Family Systems and Modern Group Therapy w/Yoon Im Kane, November 2019
- Neurofluency: The Clinical Application of Neuroscience w/Dr. Louis Cozolino, February 2019
- Social-Justice Minded Framework and Practice Workshop w/ Dr. Manuel Zamarripa, February 2019
- AGPS Weekend Institute: Early Longing, Emotional Engagement and Sexual Desire with Katie Griffin and Joseph Acosta - February 2019
- AGPS Weekend Institute: Starting a Group Developing Your Own Contract w/ Dave Kaplowitz and Michelle Bohls - December 2018
- AGPS Annual Conference in Houston: Cultivating the Internal Secure Base with Aaron Black - November 2018
- AGPS Spring Workshop: Entering the Early Unknown: Sensing When to Speak and When to Be Silent as a Group Leader w/Jordan Price - April 2018
- AGPA Annual Conference:: Enhancing Empathy and Attachment in Process Groups - February/March 2018
- AGPA Annual Conference: Introduction to Modern Group Process - February/March 2018
- AGPA Annual Conference 2-Day Institute: Beyond Binaries w/ Katie Griffin and Joseph Acosta – February/March 2018
- AGPS Sunday Night Diversity Dialogue - Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack: Navigating Systems of Power and Privilege - January 2018
- AGPS Weekend Institute: Tuning In to the Language of the Body in Group Therapy with Barbara Davis, LCSW – January 2018
- Developing & Sustaining Successful Group Leadership Practices w/ Dr. Molyn Leszcz, AGPS Annual Conf. – October 2017
- AGPS Weekend Institute: Working with Resistances in Group w/ Jay Erwin-Grotsky - September 2017
- EMDR Level 1 Weekend Intensives w/Rick Levinson - March - June 2017
- Ongoing EMDR Consultation Group w/Eyvonne Williams LCSW - March - September 2017
- AGPS Weekend Institute: Starting a Group - Putting the Pieces Together w/ Michelle Bohls LCSW and Dave Kaplowitz, LMFT - December 2016
- SSHA: Sex Outside the Lines: Liberating Sex from Culture, Psychology and Normativity w. Dr. Chris Donaghue - October 2016
- Black Swan Yoga: 200 Hr. Yoga Teacher Training w/ Madilyn McCarthy - June 2016
- SSHA: Sexual Intelligence: Innovative Approaches to Sexual “Function” & Satisfaction with Dr. Marty Klein – February 2016
- Case Consultation Group at IPNB with Marty Klein – February 2016
- Member of Bi-weekly Men's Group - November 2015 - May 2017
- An Introduction to the Hakomi Method: If the Buddha Were Your Therapist w/ Rupesh Chhagan and Gregory Gaiser - November 2015
- Jung Society of Austin: Weekend Training: A Healthy Psycho/Spiritual Worldview for the 21st Century and Finding the Extraordinary with the Ordinary - March 2015
- AGPS Weekend Institute – The Known, the Shown and Disowned: Identifying & Embracing Unlovable Affect States in the Interpersonal Group with Dr. Glenn Olds, CGP and Zach Bryant, PhD: April 2014