I get lost very easily.

Those who know me best can attest to the truth of this statement. This brain of mine can remember in great detail the story a client told me six months ago, but it is exceptionally likely to remember directions incorrectly. I turn right when I should have turned left, mistake west for north, and so on.

It took spending time in the wilderness, in a place with no trails, to find out that I actually have a very good sense of direction. As long as I’m aiming for something bigger, a mountain, a tall tree, or just walking in the direction the sun sets, I always seem to find my way. But when following a manmade trail, it’s easy to find myself confused and thinking following the trail is the point, so much so that I lost my sense of where the trail was supposed to take me.

Because of that, I make a practice of questioning everything, and of reorienting myself regularly to what is most important. I’m adept at making space for difference, and I excel at supporting clients who want to move in unconventional directions.

I’ve worked with activists, artists, entrepreneurs, and people living many different types of unconventional lives. They have a drive to serve a sense of purpose or vision, and that drive does not like to let them rest.

I know what that’s like.

I got a graduate degree and started a private therapy practice while in the midst of a 20 year career in the corporate world. At one time, I had three different jobs, not because I needed the money, but because I found all of them interesting in different ways. I was also serving on the board of a not-for-profit and working on some personal creative projects. It was way too much, but I have never been great at saying no to interesting opportunities.

Most burnout prevention and recovery resources do people like me a disservice by assuming that the road to burnout is always paved with perfectionism and a fear of not living up. But some of us don’t burn out for those reasons. Some of us burn out because our passion for whatever it is we’re drawn to has a tendency to run over everything else, and because we’re operating in systems that co-opt the drive and capability of passionate people and use them up.

Through trial and error, and by virtue of finding myself up against burnout time and time again, I’ve developed skills, practices, and ways of thinking that help me avoid some of those pitfalls. I use that experience to work with people like me so we can build a culture that makes it possible for us to serve, lead, and create without getting used up in the process.

To find out more about how I work with burnout, take a look at my blog, or get in touch to find out more about how I work with people.

I have a BA in English & Creative Writing from Knox College and an M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

My clinical experiences include:

• Clinical internship at University of Missouri – St. Louis’s Counseling Services
• Grief support group facilitation at SAGE Metro St. Louis
• Psychometrician at Washington University’s Neurology Dept. (Research study on traumatic brain injury, PTSD and depression in military service members)
• In Private practice since 2011

I completed specialized training in Narrative Therapy from the Evanston Family Therapy Center, and in Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I’ve been actively involved in the C. G. Jung Society of St. Louis for many years and have led study groups on poetry, the works of Jane Austen, and Virginia Woolf.