ABOUT ME
Before I began my journey in clinical social work, my focus was entirely on art. I began on the stage, with an undergraduate degree in theatre from the University of Southern California, where I started out as an actor, then moved into directing. I started my own theatre company, directing and producing, and had the honor to train with such companies as The Actor’s Gang in Los Angeles. I’ve done everything from burlesque to Brecht. After years on the boards, I moved from theatre to a focus on writing, which I’d been doing all my life.
I got my first book deal (Macmillan) before I started my MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts, then the top writing school in the country. My debut YA novel, Something Real, went on to win the PEN America Discovery Award. So far, I’ve published nine books (Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster), including the recent Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection CodeName Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall, a feminist pop biography of a my favorite WWII shero. I also edited an anthology. Most of my books are fiction, though I work across genres. I’m still actively writing, though my focus now is, on my work as a psychotherapist.
In addition to my creative work, I was also the Executive Director of Clouds in Water Zen Center in Saint Paul and am the former program director and co-founder of Rebecca Dykes Writers, an organization committed to ending gender based violence one word at a time and dedicated to helping women writers working in the trauma space in children’s literature. My work was to create and lead writing retreats to support women writers who’d experienced trauma and were writing about it. This was deeply formative in teaching me how to work with artists who have experienced trauma.
I tell you all this so that you know I’ve been in the creator’s trenches. I know what it’s like to experience the ups and downs of the creative’s life. It’s why I do what I do. When I needed help, I discovered there was no one who got me. My therapists were more interested in what I did than what I needed. They didn’t know how to talk to a creative. They didn’t have the tools I needed to work with my wild, creative brain.
I went through my own healing process, a patchwork quilt of helpers who pointed me toward myself, then began coaching and teaching. I soon discovered that I loved the work of supporting writers so much that I wanted to move forward with the training of becoming a therapist. So here I am! I look forward to working with you and your wonderful, wild unique brain, heart, and spirit. Know that I will be very honored indeed to help you AND your work thrive.
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As a queer clinician, I work with many clients who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community and feel honored to provide a place for them to land, take a breath, be heard, gather resources, and come up with a plan together to stay safe and regulated as they navigate these times.
It’s no secret that making art is especially hard right now. From the cancellation of NEA grants to the rise of AI, anxiety among artists is on the rise. The topics we choose to make art about in this climate can be incredibly high stakes, depending on where we’re at and the institutions we hope to work in. Having someone to process this with can be extremely beneficial. Our sessions can explore this bigger issues and their impact on you, too. How do we set all of this aside and keep our eyes on the work?
Here is a quote I will often share in our sessions by Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Our work is in that space. I can’t wait to meet you there!
Specialties
DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)
Mindfulness
Working with Creatives
Depression
Anxiety
PTSD/Trauma
Borderline Personality Disorder
Bipolar I/II
SPMI (Severe and Persistent Mental Illness)
Gender-Based Violence
Chronic Pain
Spiritual Trauma
Licensure and Training
Master’s in Social Work (MSW), LGSW
Trained mindfulness facilitator through UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center
Certified in Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness
I’m trained in DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), which is my primary form of therapy.
MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, BA in Theatre from University of Southern California
This is the earliest picture I have of me writing. I often tell my clients to hunt down the picture they have of themselves like this one. Find the picture you have of you creating before the inner critic, before market, before the pressure set in.
Our work is about finding the joy again. That adventure and flow. That place where your art is your sanctuary and your mental health and creativity are working in tandem. This is your first homework assignment from me.
My goal is to help artists work from a place of mental health, to know that they can make great art without having to be depressed or manic or live in their trauma in order to tell great stories.
I’m here to work with you to overcome where you feel stuck, heal creative wounds, and create from a place of empowerment.
We’ll build a toolbox of skills and practice that will support you in and out of your creative space. We’ll find what’s working with your practice and what needs to be revised. Your creative story has had many plot twists - let’s have this be the one that leads you to some sanctuary and ease.
TESTIMONIALS FROM MY COACHING PRACTICE
QUESTIONS? Send me a note.
