Services
- Individual
- Group
About My Clients
I work exclusively with other therapists. Many of us come to this work as parentified kids who became professional holders of others. Many of us carry real trauma. We're perceptive, over-functioning, and can see around corners, including our own defenses—so generic support doesn't land. You may want warmth that doesn't flinch and a therapist willing to push when it counts. If you've spent your life taking care of everyone else, this is where we finally turn toward you.
My Background and Approach
I didn't grow up planning to become a psychologist. I grew up in northern Michigan feeling out of place, and by high school I was using drugs to cope while quietly falling apart. At my lowest point—thinking about suicide—I told my mom what was going on, and she got me to a therapist named Mike, who saw past my guarded front and got through to me. That's the reason I do this work: if he could reach me, I could learn to reach others. I spent four years in inpatient psychotherapy with the toughest cases I could find, then thirteen years at the VA helping combat veterans face trauma most people look away from. What I learned is that real change isn't top-down insight or coping skills—it's bottom-up, experiential work that gets underneath the story to where the pain lives. That's Functional Psychotherapy, the integrative, non-pathologizing approach I practice, guided by the neuroscience of memory reconsolidation—relational, direct, and transformational, not just symptom management
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
I've never met a crazy person, and I believe everyone can get better. Both are rooted in the same experience—the reason I became a therapist in the first place. I was once a deeply unhappy young man with a drug problem, hating myself without even knowing it. I couldn't sleep, daydreamed about suicide, and thought I was losing my mind. I finally broke down and told my mom, and she got me to a therapist named Mike. I walked in defensive and pissed-off, expecting coping skills or pills. Instead, he listened, got to know me, and helped me see how hurt I actually was. As I understood myself better, I started to feel better. If I wasn't crazy—and I was sure I was—then maybe the people treated like that aren't either. Maybe they're just hurting, like I was. And if Mike could reach me, maybe I can reach some of them, too. Call me and let's find out if I'm the one who can reach you.