I grew up in a small town in central Missouri on a gravel road with one neighbor. I dreamed of moving away from my rural upbringing to city life, but when I did, I found myself longing for uncultivated natural spaces and the humbleness of the Midwest. After spending time traveling overseas, working in the kitchen at a zen center in New Mexico,  completing my graduate degree in Chicago, and working in a community health center in Vermont, I eventually found my way back to my alma mater in Oberlin where I felt the perfect balance of small town life and creative people. 

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Meditation has been a huge part of my personal journey and path to becoming a therapist. While working as a counselor at Missouri Scholars Academy I was introduced to meditation through a practice called yoga nidra. From there I began regular sitting practice with Jacques Rutzky, a long time Buddhist practitioner and Buddhist affiliate to Oberlin College. Since then I have spent over two years living in residential meditation communities and taken part in dozens of silent retreats. I am an Upāsikā or "committed practitioner" under Ajahn Sona at Birken Forest Monastery, and currently training under Beth Upton and Brother Win Thu Wun in the Pa Auk meditation tradition. 

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Prior to starting Metta Mind I worked as a play therapist at the Nord Center in Lorain, as a home-based therapist in Vermont, and ran therapy groups for folks with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in Chicago. Now in Oberlin, I feel grateful to have my own practice where I offer therapy sessions online or in-person at my office around the corner from the college. 

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In my free time I enjoy making art with my 6 year-old daughter, hiking with my spouse, and reading graphic novels in the hammock on my porch. 

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Education

Oberlin College, BA, environmental studies 2012

University of Chicago, AM, clinical social work 2017

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Training

Advanced IFS Professional Group with Jay Earley, 2023-present 

Psychedelic Integration: Premise and Promise, Fluence 2023

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, Journey Clinical, 2022

Internal Family Systems with Ted Riskin and Harry Schneider, 2022

Somatic IFS with Susan McConnell, 2021

Authentic Movement and IFS with Susan Cahill, 2018

Trauma Focused CBT, 2020

Attachment, Regulation, Competency, 2019

TraumaPlay, 2018

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Insight Behavioral Health, 2017

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