Though not born in Texas, most of my life was spent there after early years of living in various places as a military kid. Growing up, I was very influenced by living within the boundaries of West Texas culture, being the older sister, and being a band kid.

My undergrad experience at the University of North Texas opened my eyes to larger societal systems and challenged a lot of “truths” that had felt wrong, but until then, had also felt unquestionable. At the time, I didn’t know how to appropriately apply that knowledge to my actions but knew that I felt passionate about influencing those systems and living according to values that I felt more aligned with.

I never quite felt like I fit in to the West Texas culture that I grew up in, so after I graduated from UNT I moved to Radford, Virginia where I worked at a women’s resource center. It was there that I was able to see the some of the realities of the systems I had learned about and where I could best use my strengths to affect change in those systems: on an individual and familial level.

I had considered becoming a therapist earlier in my life but wasn’t motivated to pursue it until a conversation with a family therapy professor at the College of William & Mary. The professor described families as systems and family therapy as a means to heal and shift patterns within those systems in order to work towards a more just, liberated, and thriving society. That conversation felt like the puzzle piece I had been waiting for. It gave me a path forward that combined my lived experiences, my passions, and my values into something that felt purposeful.

Since then, I have come to understand my own role in these systems better and know that I alone do not have the power to change them. Working in the mental health industrial complex as a white, cisgendered, middle-class woman, I see my role as therapist to have two main responsibilities…

First, to hold non-judgmental, healing space for folks to gain insight into their roles in their own internal, familial, romantic, historical, and societal systems and then to do with that knowledge what feels most aligned with their true selves.

And second, to the best of my ability, operate in this mental health system in a way that is community-driven, connective, and rooted in collective liberation.

I have been irrevocably and fundamentally changed by this work and all the folks I have met doing it. I consider this work to be one of the greatest honors of my life.