I was born and raised right here in Houston! I am the product of a family system with a long history of dysfunction, trauma, and instability. As a result, I faced significant adversity in my personal life that ultimately inspired me to become a therapist. My journey allows me to bring a unique set of lived experiences into my work that helps to strengthen my clinical expertise and humanize the therapy experience while amplifying the uniqueness of each person’s reality. I’m a therapist who has been through some “thangs”! I’m human and I do my best to allow that humanity to reflect in our work together. I became a Marriage and Family Therapist because I am passionate about families. We experience our first relationships, develop our identity, learn what’s “right and wrong”, and observe conflict management first in our family. As a mom of two, wife, and former educator, I can tell you firsthand that good or bad, these experiences make lasting imprints on us that shape how we see the world, our beliefs about mental health, and how we function in relationships. My goal is to work with individuals, couples, and families to address the impact of family trauma on their ability to maintain healthy relationships. I also support women in working through issues such as postpartum/peripartum mental health, being an anxious overachiever, parenting, and setting healthy boundaries in relationships.

Being a therapist is not just my career…it is my calling. I was created for this and I’m so happy that you’ve found me!

My Approach to Therapy

I believe that you are the greatest expert on YOU! Because of that, I am intentional about honoring the experiences, meanings, and perspectives that you bring into our sessions. I take the time to get to know you and your way of seeing the world. I will challenge you to reevaluate your way of understanding experiences, patterns of interaction, and learned behaviors in order to create new, healthier ways of navigating life’s challenges. I will invite you to join me in being authentic during our sessions, there is no need to censor yourself. I am straightforward, I will hold you accountable for doing the work in therapy, and I will create a safe space in which you can grow. I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to therapy. I’m willing to meet you where you are. You will be at the center of everything that we do.

I am trained in the following therapy modalities:

• Collaborative Therapy

• Narrative Therapy

• Solution-Focused Therapy

• Family Systems/Systemic Therapy

Experience

Before becoming a therapist I worked as an educator for Houston ISD. During my 10-year tenure in education, I worked at Title I schools where the student population was 95% (or higher) economically disadvantaged and/or at risk. I started as a Biology teacher, where I quickly realized that the key to improving my student’s academic achievement was to meet their social, emotional, psychological, and basic needs first. I created a system that allowed me to meet each need by building them into my classroom culture. This was reflected in my assignments, classroom routines, grading style, reward systems, behavior contracts, and classroom management plans. I included parents/caregivers and community stakeholders in my efforts to create early interventions for students. I was able to teach students that were labeled “unreachable”. This passion project showed such great success that I received a promotion after my second year in the classroom. I then became an Instructional Specialist and Department Chair, where I coached a team of 15 teachers and was responsible for the success of over 1,600 students! This role allowed me to make a bigger impact, but I still felt weighed down by the instructional component of the job. I wanted to focus 100% of my energy on the social, emotional, and psychological well-being of students and their families. So, I enrolled in a Master’s program at Our Lady of the Lake University to become a therapist.

I have experience providing long-term therapy to individuals, couples, and families. I completed a year-long internship at the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where I provided psychotherapy to veterans and their families. Common problems among this population consisted of anxiety, PTSD, infidelity, women’s issues, racial discrimination/trauma, family transitions, challenges with blended families, parenting, issues surrounding sex/intimacy, family trauma, identity development, issues around being a high-functioning individual with mental health challenges, improving work-life balance, complex trauma, gender roles, conflict with spirituality, communication, conflict resolution, the stress associated with being a business owner/executive and so much more.

I also served as a graduate therapist for 2 years where I provided long-term therapy for couples, families, and individuals. Common treatment areas consisted of infidelity, transgenerational trauma, adjustment issues, anxiety, depression, identity development, sexual identity work, communication, conflict resolution, boundary setting, and other relational problems.

The Blooming Space Therapy & Consulting, PLLC was established in January 2024, where I have been providing long-term psychotherapy to women, families, and couples.