Grief is alchemy. It reshapes us, revealing both our tenderness and our capacity for love. Grief comes to us not only through the death of someone dear, but through the many endings that life holds: a relationship, a role, a dream, a version of ourselves we must release in order to grow.

I view grief as a sacred companion — a teacher that asks for time, patience, and care. In my own life, death’s arrival brought with it an abrupt awakening - what used to matter fell away into dust and ash, and I was left with a new ‘sense’ I didn’t have before. I smelled decay alongside new growth, heard funeral bells alongside my children’s laughter, and touched the silty bottom of a dark cave of memory as I held close to those I loved. I realized I was learning how to see in the dark - not moving illuminated through life with expectancy, but lighting a lamp to see just one step at a time.

In our work together, through presence and expressive arts, we create space for your grief to speak in its own language — through image, sound, story, silence, or movement. There is no single way to grieve; there is only your way, unfolding in its own time. I work with a grief model that honors the cyclical nature of grief, which includes not only room for our tears, but also for joy, relief, and taking a break from the deep and intense work that mourning can ask of us.

Rather than trying to fix or rush the process, our work together gently honors what has been lost while helping you discover what remains — love, connection, resilience, meaning. Grief, when tended with compassion, can become a threshold itself — a passage through which we begin to live again, changed but more deeply alive.

 I often think of life transitions as Threshold Seasons — those liminal spaces between what has been and what is yet to come. Sometimes a threshold arrives with unmistakable force: a sudden loss, a move, a major life change. Other times, it stirs quietly beneath the surface — a subtle inner knowing that something in your life no longer fits the person you’re becoming, and that change is already unfolding.

Threshold Seasons can be deeply uncomfortable, even painful. They ask us to release what’s familiar and step into uncertainty. Yet, they are also profoundly expansive — spaces where growth, new meaning, and a deeper sense of self can take root.

Common Threshold Seasons include:

• The death of a loved one

• The ending of a relationship

• The loss of a job or the call toward a new vocation

• Moving or shifting homes

• Perimenopause and menopause

• Children growing into adulthood

• Religious deconstruction and/or reconstruction

Each threshold carries its own rhythm and invitation. My work is to walk alongside you as you navigate these passages — honoring both the grief of what is ending and the quiet emergence of what’s next.

 For more than twenty years, I have practiced photography as a way of witnessing — a way of seeing the sacred in the ordinary and the courage in what is changing. In therapy, I offer photo therapy sessions for clients who wish to explore their healing journey through imagery. These sessions may accompany the process of physical change due to medical intervention, loss, or transition.

Together, we co-create a series of images that become a kind of visual narrative of resilience — a photo book that bears witness to the truth of your body, your emotions, and your becoming. One client, healing from skin cancer, wished to honor her scars as marks of survival and beauty. Another, grieving the death of her father, invited the camera to hold her tears. She later described the process as helping her feel “unstuck” in her grief — as though something inside her had finally been witnessed and released.  

Photo therapy is less about performance and more about presence — an act of creative witnessing that says, this is who I am in this moment, and that is enough.

During my time at Seby B. Jones Regional Cancer Center, I provided both individual counseling and expressive arts interventions for patients and families navigating the complexities of cancer treatment. Some sessions took place in the quiet of the therapy room, while others unfolded in the infusion rooms, where I companioned individuals in real time as they received treatment. Through gentle presence and curiosity, we found ways to honor fear, resilience, and hope as they coexisted in the same moment. That season of work taught me that healing often happens in the act of being fully seen. As a counselor, my job is not to fix or change your experience with cancer, but to witness, honor and co-create with you as you discover your places of grief, strength, and support.

During my time at Watauga Medical Center, I worked alongside the hospital chaplains as a counselor, supporting patients and families through moments of acute medical crisis and profound vulnerability. My work included offering mindfulness-based techniques to help patients manage pain and anxiety, providing grounding and comfort to families in the emergency department following traumatic injuries, and counseling individuals preparing for or recovering from procedures such as mastectomies and amputations. These encounters offered a firsthand understanding of how medical experiences can leave emotional and spiritual imprints long after the body begins to heal. The work deepened my commitment to trauma-informed care — to creating spaces where the body’s memory, fear, and resilience can be held with gentleness, creativity, and dignity.

The color and tone of anxiety and depression during the perinatal period for birthing individuals and families are unlike any other stage of life. Changes to the body, hormones, and the realities of a changing family structure can bring immense challenges. Tending this time requires a specific level of understanding and care. Through ongoing training with Postpartum Support International, and The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death, I have an understanding of the unique emotional and physiological landscape of pregnancy, postpartum, and the grief that can accompany perinatal loss and trauma during this tender time.

Beginning in Spring 2026, I'll be facilitating a perinatal loss grief group for those seeking community support alongside individual counseling. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly for more information on individual counseling or future group offerings.