I completed my Ph.D. in the Combined Counseling and School Psychology program at Florida State University, where my research focused on mediators of suicide risk in gender and sexual orientation minorities. My research flowed into clinical practice supporting the strength and resilience of at risk individuals, while maintaining a stance of cultural humility in the face of each person’s unique and intersecting identities.

One community I have been especially honored to serve is military veterans. I completed an APA accredited internship at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Healthcare system in Gainesville, FL, with a focus on traumatic stress, substance misuse disorders, and womens/trans issues. I then completed my postdoctoral fellowship at the Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Medical Center, specializing in the evidence based treatment for OCD/Anxiety Spectrum Disorders and Substance Misuse Disorders. During my time as a fellow, I completed a research project examining the frequency of symptom overlap between substance misuse disorders and OCD. At the conclusion of my fellowship, I began my tenure as a psychologist at the Bay Pines VA, where I later became the Eating Disorder Treatment Team Lead, faculty in the Psychiatry Residency, and a member of the Psychology Training Committee.

While at the VA, I had the opportunity to work at all levels of care, from brief behavioral health interventions in a primary care setting, to providing outpatient care, intensive outpatient and residential treatment, and also served as the acute inpatient psychologist. I developed a passion for providing psychotherapy to adults and seniors coming to terms with life role transition, grief, chronic pain, and adjustment to disability, and am trained in CBT for Chronic Pain and ACT for Chronic Pain. Prior to joining Katie Merricks Counseling, I was the Director of Clinical Training for Centerstone Consortium, an APA accredited predoctoral internship program. I find meaning in training the next generation of psychologists in evidence based treatment.

I further enjoy working with diagnostically complex clients, and individuals who are seeking help coping with intense or overwhelming emotions while resisting resorting to self-destructive behaviors. I use motivational enhancement and Dialectical Behavior Therapy to support clients in achieving, as Marsha Linehan states, “a life worth living.”