A little something about me.
I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and reside in Moreno Valley, California with my husband. I married into a blended family and my husband and I co-parented three daughters. I was born in Arkansas and migrated to Los Angeles where I completed my college education. After obtaining a BS Degree in Psychology at Vanguard University, I went on to California State University at Dominguez Hills where I received an MS degree in Marriage & Family Therapy.
I spent a number of years living in Trinidad, West Indies prior to returning the U.S. to complete my education. For as far back as I recall, I have had a special place in my heart for children. During the last three years of my stay on the Island, I worked as a teacher and counselor/mentor in the Children & Youth Ministry at the church I attended. It was there that I realized I wanted to develop professionally and focus my work in a very significant way to impact the lives of troubled children positively. For me, this naturally evolved to the inclusion and practice of Individual, Couples and Family Therapy.
While working as an intern at Southern California Counseling Center, I provided individual and couples counseling to a very diverse adult population. During that intern period, I also volunteered to provide supervision to trained teenage counselors at Teen Line, located at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a teen-to-teen help- line for adolescent callers struggling with a wide range of issues such as suicidal ideation, run-away acts, self-harm, eating disorders, depression, pregnancy, etc. In 2008, I went on to work as a therapist with Kedren Health Center, a large community-based mental health agency. I worked with children and tween-teens for three years as a School-based therapist at schools in Watts and Compton until promoted to Supervisor of the program. Shortly thereafter, I began working with foster families in the Specialized Foster Care Services Program at the agency as Supervisor of that program and continued in that role while providing direct therapy to children along with education and support to their caregivers until accepting the position of Program Director of the School Program. Following my resignation in 2019 after relocating to Moreno Valley, CA the Counseling Center in Moreno Valley was birthed.
My years of working with clients who struggle with PTSD, depression, anxiety, difficulty controlling anger, experienced domestic violence or other trauma and loss has helped prepare me to work alongside clients who grapple with these, and other related (and non-related) issues. I work with children, adolescents, individuals, couples and families with special emphasis on children and adolescents who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events. I use practices such as Play Therapy, CBT, Trauma Focused CBT, Sandplay Therapy, Gottman Couples Therapy Method, Mindfulness, Music, and Movement.