Where do I even begin? First, I want to say- Hi. Hello. G’day! I’m glad you’re here! :)

Secondly, I want to share just how much I miss being a therapist! I have always felt so incredibly honored to walk along others during difficult times! Truly. With that being said, I never really felt like a therapist!… although, how is a therapist supposed to feel? At any rate, I’ve always just felt like another human trying to navigate in this world. I’m really trying to listen and honor what feels right for this season of life! Many years ago, I almost pursued Life Coaching… are there things a therapist is limited to being a therapist, yes. And, are there things a Life Coach is limited to being a life coach, yes.

Finally, it’s been just over a year since I’ve been a practicing clinician… and my goodness, I have stuff to share.

I’ve been in the helping profession, just shy of 20 years. I officially started in the field back in 2007. I was a college student and couldn’t wait to turn 21 so I could apply to be a group home support staff for high-risk teens. I absolutely loved it. Ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to help others… as if it wasn’t even a choice.

I received my Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling and was a practicing clinician from 2012 until 2025. During all my time practicing, I primarily focused on Cognitive Behavioral Approaches (and the plethora of other related approaches). For the psychology nerds out there, these are your ‘top-down’ approaches to psychotherapy. Essentially this means that the client would unpack and dissect their conscious thoughts, belief systems, and patterns of behaviors. The emphasis of this treatment is learning to restructure unhelpful thoughts and beliefs that will then influence emotion and behaviors. These approaches always felt a bit too ‘Easy-Peasy’, if you will. However, I was comforted by the evidence that backed up the top-down approaches. Often, the APA (I’ll get more into that later) encourages CBT to be the first line of treatment for many mental health diagnoses! On top of that, I witnessed hundreds of clients getting better using these approaches! They Do Work! I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how these approaches also helped me with a gnarly eating disorder and wicked anxiety! More on diagnosis later…

As I mentioned, I haven’t been practicing since September 2025. This blog post is not intended to be used as treatment for any mental health difficulties and should not be substituted for psychotherapy. This blog post is my attempt at sharing information that I wish I knew a year ago.

If you are a past client of mine, I hope you are kicking major ass in life!!! I think of you often. I apologize for missing what I didn’t yet know during our time together!

Stay Tuned! …. sending big hugs!

Emily