For the last 15 years, I have worked with people and families facing cancer, caring for an aging loved one, and navigating end-of-life issues and the journey through grief. My work has taken me many places: into people’s homes as an eldercare manager; hospitals as a Buddhist chaplain; a cancer wellness center as a meditation teacher, support group facilitator, and counselor; hospice as a spiritual care provider; an oncology outpatient clinic as a medical social worker; and now into private practice as a psychotherapist serving the broader mental health needs of the community.
My Buddhist studies and training in Naropa University’s Master of Divinity program grounded me in contemplative approaches to working with people during times of transition, loss, crisis, and illness. I have participated in several extensive meditation retreats and am trained as a Meditation Instructor. I also completed a two-year training in “Buddhist Psychology and Contemporary Gestalt Therapy” and am currently in an Advanced Gestalt Therapy training group.
I also received my Master of Social Work degree from Portland State University, where I focused my studies on medical social work and simultaneously pursued the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology. I spent five years working at OHSU serving the psychosocial needs of the oncology patients being treated there and their families.
Significant life transitions often alter our experience of the world around us. This can be very disorienting but it can also be an invitation to possibility- that we might be able to open to our lives more fully, be present with what is, and uncover tremendous compassion for ourselves and others.
In truth, life possesses an inherent uncertainty to it and my passion in my work is being able to walk with people as they get to know themselves in a deeper way and perhaps come to trust the fullness of their authentic experience.
