the FAQ

(answers to 19 questions you might have)

Who is this for?

  • When I was looking for language I could use in good faith to represent this work, the image of a shepherdess settled into my bones. And then I had a challenge. I know first-hand that the Christian church is not safe for everyone. I chose secular to make the separation between me and the church abundantly clear. I can and do support folks who are members of the Christian church. I do not use the bible as source material.

    There is a longer post in the about section.

  • Yes, I work with folks who identify as neurodivergent. And, what matters to me is how you actually live it and what works for you.

    What I've noticed about ADHD, autism, complex PTSD, and all of the other ways we land on the neurodivergent spectrum is that each one of those labels points to between five and twenty things. Everyone experiences them differently, and if you have more than one of them, then your experience is completely different. Your experiences of each of them are informed by the other.

    I'd rather start from what's actually real for you than from what's written on a form.

  • No. You don't have to identify as anything for this work. Human, robot, alien, whatever works for you.

    The trauma training is there because for a lot of folks who don't fit Western capitalist culture's definition of "normal," life is inherently traumatic. To safely hold space for those experiences, I need to understand what trauma actually does to us as whole people.

    You don't have to name it that. I still need to know how to be with it.

What is this work?

  • The session occurs over Zoom. I have the meeting room open 2-3 minutes before the session start time.

    There's a greeting. From there, whatever is active for you (aka where you want to focus) is what we work on.

    You tell me the story. I receive it without fixing it. I listen and empathize, and I ask how you'd like to proceed.

    I may offer my perspective on what you've said or possible ways forward while acknowledging that my way may not be your way.

    You may get overwhelmed during a session. I'll wait and witness you until the moment is over. Then I'll invite you to share.

    If you don't have words, I'll offer some language that may or may not work for you.

    If you have too many words, I'll listen and distill it down to something that might be more manageable (it's one of my superpowers).

    What we work on is dependent on what you surface. For that reason, I generally only invite or offer once per session. Way too many consent violations happen when the first no is taken as a maybe. If you want me to dig, you'll need to tell me to dig.

    There's no master structure. What happens depends on what you bring.

  • It's not therapy because I'm not trying to fix you.

    I'm not trying to make you use tools that I think will make your life better. I may expose you to tools. I may offer alternatives, but I'm not tied to you using them. I am tied to providing you a supportive space that allows you to explore who you are and how you want to live in the world.

    It's not therapy because it's a peer relationship.

    I enter the conversation two steps ahead of you and not as an authority who's two miles ahead of you. I'm not coming into it as a therapist with a strict code of non-disclosure. I am not coming into it as someone who thinks of you in terms of labels and wants you to fit into some box.

    These conversations aren't in competition with therapy. Because the work we do is in the middle sections of a journey between the crisis and the thriving, this space can be held with the support of a mental health professional or without the support of a mental health professional. It just depends on what kind of support you need in your life right now, and that choice is yours to make.

  • No. I share the Life Support Paradigm so you have a starting point for understanding how I think. The work happens within our relationship, the framework is a tool I might use.

    I have basic familiarity with a multitude of therapeutic modalities including CBT, DBT, IFS, personal narratives, and others. I'm not married to any of them and I may use pieces and parts of them.

    If something doesn't work for you, tell me. I'll believe you.

  • If you have goals and want someone to support you in monitoring your progress, I'm more than willing to do that work.

    Talking about what you want your future to look like is an integral part of our work. And, because my own internal response to goals is, well, not so helpful, what I won't do is lead us toward setting explicit goals.

    All goal setting language and tasks will come from you.

  • There isn’t a process and that’s the point.

How does this work?

  • There's no minimum commitment.

    That said, for most people we end up working together for anywhere from four months to a year and a half. Yes, that's a wishy-washy range. The reality is that the work is different for everyone. The time frame is influenced by what folks carry in, what they want to work through, and how much bandwidth they have available.

    Also, sometimes this work is done in fits and starts, because life be life-ing or you've reached a plateau and need to integrate some stuff before moving on. It's totally understandable and accepted as part of the process.

  • The inquiry call is a free 30-minute conversation where we get a sense of each other. I'll share where I come from and how I approach the work, so you have a feel for how I show up in a session before you commit to one.

  • I don't know how to tell you if this is going to be right for you.

    What I recommend is that you schedule an inquiry call to see if we could work well together. We do an inquiry call because fit can't be determined by text files, we both need to feel it out to know if it's a yes we'll work.

    If we get a session or two in and you realize it's not what you were hoping for, it's not a problem to say "this isn't working for me" and go find someone else.

  • Typically weekly or bi-weekly, depending on what works for you.

  • No, and I'm not looking to change that. Insurance coverage requires a medical model with diagnosis, labels, treatment plans. That's not what this is.

  • What you share stays between us, with four exceptions that any responsible practitioner has. The full confidentiality policy is in the policy doc.

  • Automated systems actually show up in this practice in the following ways:

    For our conversations, I don't use AI. My session notes are handwritten and stay handwritten. They don't go into any electronic system. If you need transcription or closed captioning for accessibility, both are available through Zoom, and both require Zoom to collect your spoken words and run them through its AI.

    For booking and communication I use Tidycal and Kit.com. These are standard commercial platforms. When you book a session, Tidycal collects your name and email to manage the appointment. If you subscribe to the newsletter, Kit collects your email to manage delivery and communication. Your information in these platforms is handled under their privacy policies, not under medical or mental health privacy standards.

    I use Claude AI as a thinking partner throughout much of my writing. All of the language and phrasing is mine. I consider every published word mine, even the dumb ones, because I wouldn't say it another way.

  • Communication between sessions is typically by email. While I will read your emails before our next session, I don't necessarily respond to every message.

  • My trauma coaching foundation comes from the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching (IAOTRC), where I trained in 2022 and 2023. I now hold certification through the Global Trauma Institute.

    I have subsequently become a member of the Global Trauma Institute, completing the Bridge Program for Advanced Practitioners in March of 2025. To keep my certification, I'm required to regularly attend supervision, expand my trauma knowledge, and pass an ethics test.

    Training and certifications:

    • Global Trauma Institute - Certified Trauma Care Practitioner - Advanced (CTCP-A) April 2025

    • International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching - Parts Work through a Polyvagal Lens training in 2024

    • International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching - Advanced Certified Trauma Recovery Coach in 2023

    • International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching - Certified Trauma Recovery Coach training in 2022

    • The Somatic School Coaching training 2021

    • Healing Arts Ministerial Ordainment - Freedom Folk and Soul in 2021

    • Master's of Social Work - Kennesaw State University in 2021

    • Transformation Facilitator of the Healing Arts and Personal Freedom Coaching - Freedom Folk and Soul in 2021

    • Improv, Acting, and Standup Training - JaCKPie and/or Relapse Theater in the early 2010s (It's where I learned how to be more mentally bendy.)

    • Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering - Case Western Reserve University in 1997