I became a counselor because, in the span of a year (1999-2000), a few different people told me I should. I was floating through life well into my twenties with no idea of what I’d want to do. I’d always thought, in some way, I wanted to work for world peace but the world is so big and I get overwhelmed by too many things. Not to mention I’m kind of quiet. The only thing I really knew was that I wanted a life where I could just be very very good to people. There was a school down the street from my apartment at the time, Lesley University, which had a Master’s program in Counseling Psychology. I thought, why not? And the minute I sat down to my first class, I knew I was in the right place. That was 2001.

Over the last couple decades, I’ve continuously cultivated a personal and professional practice rooted in certainty that we have innate strengths as humans, such as compassion and humor, and innate needs, such as creativity and connection with self, other humans and the world around us. Our Western culture makes it hard to access and attend to what’s innate and what could bring us to meaningful peace and joy. Our culture also leads us away from the understanding that others - all others, really - are capable of great amounts of good and have the same strengths, needs and vulnerabilities we have. Part of the work, as I see it, is awakening a sense of basic goodness in ourselves that we share with all others around us.

The work we do in counseling serves the whole fabric of humanity. It offers rest to ancestors who’ve passed along their traumas (perhaps hoping we will heal it) and plants seeds for a better future for all our descendants. In each effort we make to live outside the lines of anxiety, depression and trauma, to cultivate a bigger, gentler inner space, we alter the whole trajectory of our life, and the lives of all those we encounter. I see the work you’ll do to heal as directly tied to world peace.

I work with individuals, families, couples and groups using mindfulness, compassion, somatic awareness and narrative therapy techniques so we become wise about what works, what doesn’t, what’s missing and what’s too much. We pursue being OK, taking good care of our selves and being there for the important others in our lives.

In addition to counseling work, I am a registered yoga teacher. I started practicing yoga in 1999 and teaching in 2018. I value this practice as a concrete vehicle of self-care and love to teach others to care for the self in this way, too. To turn inward in order to notice the experience the body and mind are having and, from a place of compassion, do whatever feels needed: a subtle shift to ease pain, a difficult pose held longer to help me grow. “What does this feel like?” is a profound question to learn to ask oneself, on and off the mat. It is the very core of my counseling work. And cultivating flexibility and strength in functional measure makes moving around the inner and outer world a little easier.

Apart from counseling, I have three children, I read, cook, walk a dog, try to run and make art when I can. I have daily practices of yoga and meditation or I’d never be able to encourage others in these pursuits. I strive to bring about the greatest good I possibly can and beyond that, to live an ordinary life. Nothing sounds better to me.

(About the groundedinbirdsong name - I suggest you step outside and listen with an open heart to the birdsong available to you at almost any moment of a day. This is what grounds me. The birdsong and the trees that host them, all show up equally for everyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. This is proof of the innate goodness of this beautiful world. And if this world is good, so am I. So are you. This, just listening and noticing, is a mindfulness practice for body, mind and spirit.)