Where is your office located?
I have two offices…
6666 Gunpark Drive, Suite #102 Boulder, CO 80301
325 West South Boulder Road, #6 Louisville, CO 80027
After booking your first in-person appointment, I will send you more detailed directions and information.
Do you work in-person or online?
I offer both in-person and online sessions:
In-person sessions…
I highly value in-person time, and feel that this allows us to connect in a more fully embodied way, engage in more expansive movement practices, and use all the fun things in my office (like art supplies, stress toys, blankets, and music)!
For the health and safety of all who visit my office, please only attend in-person sessions if you are free of all possible cold, flu or covid-19 symptoms. If you are sick, we can switch to an online session or reschedule. On occasion, I may require that we wear masks in session if I feel extra precautions are needed for specific circumstances.
Meeting outside is also an option, depending on weather and scheduling availability.
Online sessions…
I have been pleasantly surprised by the ease and effectiveness of virtual sessions. If you have health or transportation concerns and live in Colorado, this is a great option!
Many people enjoy online sessions because they feel more comfortable in their own space, don’t want to waste time commuting, and get to introduce me to their pets!
I run all my online sessions through Simple Practice, a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform designed for therapists. You’ll receive a unique and secure video link for each appointment.
Is your office wheelchair accessible?
Does your office have gender-neutral bathrooms?
What hours are you available?
I offer 50-min individual therapy sessions in my Gunbarrel office on Tuesdays 11-5pm and Wednesdays 11-5pm, and online sessions on Thursdays 10:30am-1:30pm.
I offer intensive therapy sessions and group therapy on Fridays in my Louisville office from roughly 11am to 6pm.
During our first consultation call, I’ll let you know which specific time slots I currently have open.
How long are sessions?
Weekly or biweekly individual therapy sessions are 50 minutes long.
Because somatic and creative methods benefit from more spacious time, I also offer half and full day intensive therapy sessions that range from 2 to 6 hours in length. We can discuss together if this kind of deep-dive is a good fit for you and your needs.
How much do you charge?
- My rate is $260 for 50-minute individual therapy sessions. Clients who commit to a consistent rhythm of therapy may also book longer sessions, prorated at $312 per hour.
- Half Day Intensives are $1450. This includes a 50-min preparation session, 3 hour in-person intensive, 50-min integration session, and a summary of my notes from the series.
- Full Day Intensives are $2640. This includes an 80-min preparation session, 6 hour in-person intensive, 80-min integration session, and a summary of my notes from the series.
- Workshops, events, and group therapy prices vary depending on the specific offering.
Notice to clients and prospective clients:
When we begin therapy together, you will receive a Good Faith Estimate that details all of my fees. You will receive an updated estimate annual, and be given advance notice of any fee changes. Under the “No Surprises Act” and accompanying law, health care providers need to give clients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services. You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services. You can ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service, or at any time during treatment. If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate. For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, or how to dispute a bill, see your Estimate, or visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.
What forms of payment do you accept?
Do you take insurance?
No. I can work more freely and effectively when I am not beholden to an insurance company.
If your insurance covers out-of-network providers, I can provide you with receipts to submit for possible reimbursement.
How do I set up an initial appointment? What are the first steps?
We will start with a free-20 minute consultation in-person or over video call where we will talk about what you’re looking for in therapy and see if we are a good fit. The easiest way to set up that appointment is to book it through my online calendar:
During that call, you’ll have a chance to ask any questions you have and schedule your first full appointment! I’ll also get your payment information so that you won’t have to think about that on the day that we start.
I’ll send you my consent forms and other paperwork to complete electronically before our first session. This will include a personal history questionnaire to give me more detail about your life. It takes a little time, but it helps me to get to know you and make sure we’re staying focused on your top priorities as we begin to work together.
In our first session, we’ll start with grounding and movement practices to help you settle in. We’ll review all of the paperwork and answer any questions you may have, and I may ask you some follow-up questions about your personal history questionnaire. We’ll also explore your specific goals and make a plan for working together that feels right for you.
Do you work with kids and teens?
Do you work with couples?
No. I specialize in relationships and attachment, but I only work with individual adults.
Many of my clients choose to pursue couples therapy as well, and I have a great list of couples therapists to whom I can refer you!
I see mostly women on your website. Do you only work with women?
I see that you specialize in LGBTQ+ mental health. Do you only work with queer folks?
How do I know if I'm queer enough to have an LGBTQ+-focused therapist?
Maybe I’d be taking a spot from someone who deserves this more. What do I do?
For all of you who are wondering if you’re queer enough, let me say now and forever, YOU ABSOLUTELY ARE!!!
If you’re “bi” or “pan” or “heteroflexible,”…
Or “questioning” or “curious”…
Or “someone-on-some-continuum-that-you’re-not-really-sure-about”…
Or “thinking-you’re-queer-but-you’ve-never-had-sex-with-the-same-gender-so-maybe-it-doesn’t-count”…
Or “had-this-intense-confusing-best-friend-that-maybe-should-have-been-more”…
Or “totally-embarrassed-that-you’re-30-and-didn’t-figure-this-out-sooner”…
THIS PLACE IS FOR YOU!
Even if you’re not sure how you identify…
Even if you’re “inexperienced”…
Even if you don’t feel like a part of the queer community…
Believe me. I’ve been there. This is about inclusion. Who you are is valid, and you deserve to be here.
Do you work with medical gender transitions?
While I welcome trans folks into my practice who want to explore things like trauma, anxiety, relationships, and identity, I do not have any specialized training in the transition process.
If you are looking for support regarding how/when to transition, life during/after a medical transition, or a letter from a therapist supporting your decision to proceed with transition, I would rather see you matched with someone more knowledgeable and skilled in this area.
If you have trouble finding someone to work with, please reach out, as I have a great list of people in the Boulder/Denver area who specialize in transitions and trans identity.
If you're a dance therapist, does that mean we will dance in sessions?
That depends.
If you’re asking excitedly, like “Oh, my gosh, that sounds amazing… can we really do that?” then my answer is “YES!”
If you’re asking in a terrified way, like “This body stuff sounds useful, but you’re not going to make me dance, are you?” then my answer is “no.” Don’t worry… I’m not going to force you into anything that seems too uncomfortable or scary.
Here’s the thing: Dance therapy is extremely creative and adaptable, so it will look a little different for each person, therapist, and setting.
What exactly does "dance therapy" mean?
First, I would like to invite you to expand your definition of the word “dance.”
Dance is expressive movement. From my perspective, we are dancing all the time… from the texture of our breath, the cadence of our walk, and the many ways we communicate our feelings nonverbally with gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Smiling, hugging, sighing, crossing our arms, slapping a hand on our thigh, curling up on the couch, and, yes, dancing are all examples of expressive movement. They all translate our internal experience into outward action.
Dance is also about exploring relationships. This includes the relationship between body parts, between inner parts of ourselves, between ourselves and the space or environment around us, and between ourselves and other people, the community, or society.
These two main themes of self-expression and relationship are woven into every session (implicitly or explicitly).
In my dance/movement therapy sessions, your natural expressive movements will be explored to help you gain insight into your inner world.
You will not be learning specific movements, ways to move, or choreography. Rather, you’ll be building awareness of your own subjective movement experiences and patterns. We can then expand upon and play with these movements as a way of exploring your identity, emotions, desires, needs, conflicts, and relationships.
Sometimes this can be as simple as noticing your breath… or repeating a hand gesture you used when you recounted a personal story. Sometimes it can look more like “dance,” with larger movements or music that is meaningful to you. It depends on you and what feels relevant to your healing and growth.
Either way, the “dance” in dance therapy is not performative; instead, it’s a creative way to build your self-awareness and capacity for authentic self-expression.
What does a somatic or dance therapy session look like?
I like to start sessions with a short period of grounding or movement to connect with the body right away and transition you fully into the space of therapy.
Then, we’ll check in verbally about how you’re feeling, any reflections you might have had since our last session… or other things that might be “up” for you.
From there, we’ll decide how we want to focus our time, choosing a theme or a topic to work on that aligns with your bigger goals. I’ll likely ask you some questions to help you focus and encourage you to slow down the “story” and pay attention to your breath and the sensations in your body as you speak.
I will also offer you somatic/movement suggestions that align with a particular theme on which you’re working. We might dive deeper into a physical sensation, describing it with color and imagery and seeing what it has to “say.” We might embody different parts of you on different sides of the room (like the part that feels angry and the part that feels sad… or the part that wants to do something and the part that feels afraid) to gain more insight into those inner perspectives. We might explore a movement or gesture that came up while you were speaking, adding a song or a sound that matches it so that it can be expressed more fully.
These are just a few cursory examples; the process will be creative and customized for you and your needs. We’ll always leave some time at the end of our session to discuss the experience, exploring what you gained from it and how you want to take it forward. If needed, we’ll return to some grounding practices so that you feel okay to exit the therapy space and go about your day.
What is "DANCEmandala"?
DANCEmandala is a specific movement mediation practice developed by a Thai dance and yoga teacher named Areeradh Tri-siddha. I trained with her at the School of Movement Meditation in Thailand and became a certified DANCEmandala facilitator in 2017.
DANCEmandala includes music and verbal meditation guidance to create a journey inward, cultivating awareness, insight, and expression. It is free-form, which means there are no specific movements or choreography that you need to know, and there is no right or wrong way to move your body during the practice.
I welcome you to read my DANCEmandala Movement Meditation page for complete details.
What is "Authentic Movement"?
Authentic Movement is a specific form of movement meditation rooted in Jungian Psychology and Dance/Movement Therapy. It is an eyes-closed practice that invites the “mover” to explore somatic, unconscious, and transpersonal material by following the natural impulses of body sensation and active imagination.
The “mover” is always accompanied by a “witness” who acts as a grounding anchor for the mover, holding space for the mover’s experience, observing their movements, and keeping track of their own inner experience and responses as they do so. There is no music or verbal guidance. This is often considered a more advanced embodiment practice for those seeking a deeper and more spiritual exploration of their psychology. It can be done independently in a group or pair or embedded within a psychotherapy session.
I welcome you to read my Authentic Movement Meditation page for complete details.
How did you get into this kind of work?
I have always been a dancer in some form or another. But, over the years, I grew away from dance as a performing art and into free-form dance as an inner journey, meditation, and insight practice.
One big turning point in my life occurred when I discovered DANCEmandala movement meditation. I reconnected with myself through this practice, found a deeper sense of inner healing, and carved out a new, exciting path in life! The more I engaged in movement meditation, the more I witnessed how deep the experience was for participants. They contacted intense emotions, spiritual experiences, old trauma, and new forms of healing and growth.
I felt inspired to go deeper into this work and wanted to support others – not just in the dance but in ALL OF IT! When I learned about somatic and dance/movement therapy, I knew it was the path for me! It has allowed me to weave together my love of dance and movement and bodies with my deep love and respect for humans and emotions and relationships. I also get to orient my work around my personal values of self-expression, connection, and deep embodied transformational healing.
After completing my facilitator’s training in movement meditation, I applied for graduate programs in counseling and dance/movement therapy. And, as they say, the rest is history!
What is your professional training and experience?
I have a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Somatic Counseling and a concentration in Dance/Movement Therapy from Naropa University (2020). My graduate training was rooted in humanistic, attachment-focused, relational, and social justice orientations.
As part of my degree, I completed an 80-hour practicum with Focus Reentry, mentoring incarcerated women as they transitioned out of the Boulder County jail. I also completed a 700-hour internship at the Naropa Community Counseling Center, offering individual and group therapy to low-income clients.
In 2020, I gave a virtual presentation of my master’s paper, “Sensing the self: a dance/movement therapy model of embodied identity development” which was later published in the journal Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy.
My post-graduate education includes additional training in treating complex trauma and CPTSD, LGBTQ+ identity and mental health, somatic-concentric sex therapy, and collaborative assessment and management of suicidality (CAMS).
I am also a certified instructor in dance/movement meditation and mindfulness meditation, which I actively incorporate into my therapy style.
I began my private practice in 2020, and I am currently a fully Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Colorado.
What's your sign?
What's the best concert you've ever attended?
Please, don’t make me choose!
Okay, okay…
My top experience has to be seeing Duo De Twang, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, and Primus at my favorite venue (The Fox Theater in Oakland) on New Year’s Eve. That also happened to be the first time I got my partner to come with me to a Claypool show… and the first time I ever got to hear my favorite song, “Cosmic Highway,” live.
Close runner-ups would be when I was front-and-center for Muse at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, George Clinton and P-Funk at Yoshi’s (also San Francisco… I’m noticing a trend here), and the one time I got to see B.B. King will always be very close to my heart.