You don’t have to do the work alone
Starting therapy is a brave first step. Congratulations; you’ve already done the hardest part. We can arrange a free consultation call to get to know each other, no obligation, just two humans talking. If you’d like a deeper look at my credentials, you can keep scrolling to read more. Otherwise, the booking button is right here, ready when you are.
Hello there…
My story is what shaped me. It is where my roots live, and it is why I share it with you.
I am a survivor of complex trauma, including ritual abuse. I have navigated living in a world where my abuser(s) never received punishment for their crimes. After leaving the ranch where I was kept prisoner for 15 years, I entered foster care, a place where I was gaslit and forced to fit the mold of what a “good girl” should look like. I was never allowed emotional outbursts. My emotions were pathologized and my creativity suffocated.
At age sixteen, I was told by a psychiatrist that a “girl like me” would most likely not graduate high school, much less go to college.
I was disowned by my foster parents at age eighteen for falling in love with a woman.
I went on to complete not one, not two, but three degrees. I finished my Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health at the age of 24 and went on to receive a second Master’s degree at age 26.
I moved countries by myself. My two cats count for something. I started life over in a place where I knew no one, but knew something had to change.
I have been an avid protester, marching in the streets for women’s rights, for Black Lives Matter, and for the underprivileged.
At age 29, I wrote a book about my survivorship, Maven in the Mirror, authoring my own story this time not just as a survivor, but as a woman fully becoming.
At age 32, I birthed my daughter at home without medical intervention. This was another life event that cracked me open in unimaginable ways. Her birth became a turning point in my life, one for which I am deeply grateful. Becoming a mother allowed me to truly see the inner child in all of my clients and the very real human need we all have to be met with empathy, care, and tenderness. These experiences shaped the therapist I am today. I know what it means to survive the unimaginable, and I know that healing becomes possible when someone finally feels seen.
I don’t label my techniques, although I carry many that I have gathered along the way. There are no scripted therapy plans, because we are humans, not robots. I listen deeply, respond tenderly, and confront gently. My work is nothing if not deep. The kind of depth that cannot be learned from a degree or certificate program. I embody the kind of trauma-informed care that comes from living through some of the worst forms of human violence imaginable and still choosing softness, empathy, love, and compassion every single day… not in spite of those awful experiences, but because of them.
I cannot wait to be a mirror of compassion on your journey. I have worked in domestic violence intervention, substance abuse treatment, prison systems, probation departments, and with Child Protective Services. I have sat in the therapist’s chair for over a decade. This is my calling…. to be a sacred witness to others in times of transition and becoming.
The fact that you are still here, learning, loving, and creating is radical, and I see you carrying so much.
No matter how difficult your life circumstances may have been, no matter your history or the obstacles you have faced, you deserve healing, dignity, and a life that is as rich as it is whole. I am here to remind you of this truth and to accompany on your journey as you begin to remember too.
Dante