I'm a mom, a wife, and someone who genuinely loves being outside — hiking, exploring local events, and soaking up everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer. My kids range from 15 to 27, so I'm living the full spectrum of adolescent and young adult life in my own home — and that perspective shows up in my work.

I relocated from Arizona to Bellingham in 2021 and haven't looked back. PNW life fits. I'm rooted here, and I'm proud to be part of this community — including as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Everyone who walks through my (virtual) door deserves care that's affirming, honest, and free of judgment.

I have 20 years of nursing experience, 17 of them in pediatrics. I currently serve as the Director of two voluntary mental health crisis centers, where I lead teams caring for people across the full spectrum of psychiatric complexity. I have cared for children & teens with trauma, behavioral challenges, and mood disorders up to those who are adults presenting with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.

I've worked at the intersection of crisis and chronic mental illness long enough to know that behind every diagnosis is a person and a story. That clinical range — from a struggling 7-year-old to an adult in acute psychiatric crisis — means I'm rarely caught off guard, and I bring that steadiness into every evaluation and medication management appointment I do in private practice.

I'm trauma-informed and ACE-aware — it's not a framework I learned in a training and filed away, it's how I think and how I show up in every interaction. I understand that behavior is communication, that symptoms don't exist in a vacuum, and that what happened to someone matters just as much as what's happening now.

I've been called the calm in a crisis — by colleagues, by patients, by families sitting across from me in some of the hardest moments of their lives. I don't say that to brag; I say it because I think it matters enormously when you're trusting someone with your child's mental health, or your own. You need someone who isn't rattled, who isn't rushing to the next thing, and who can hold space for the hard stuff without flinching.

I'm compassionate and genuinely hard to shock. I've worked with childhood trauma, behavioral crises, psychosis, suicidal ideation, and everything in between. There is very little you or your child could bring to me that I haven't encountered in some form — and nothing that would make me see you differently as a person. Families and young people can be honest with me. That's the whole point.