How I got here…

As a teenager I found myself in a very strict placement prompted by behavioral issues. My parents sought outpatient clinical intervention, but I was long gone under the influence of substances. Due to the disruption of the family system, I was placed in inpatient programs. One of which utilized sleep deprivation, confrontation, humiliation, isolation, and fabrication.

Following two harrowing escapes after a year in my last program, I entered undergrad with the question of so many psychology students before me. What’s wrong with me? Before this transitioned into- what happened to me?

By 20, my primary goal was developing a program to work with the family system. I became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist. I wanted to understand challenges such as substance use, mental health, and family conflict that contributed to disruptions in the home. My experience includes working in community mental health, substance use treatment, and residential treatment for adjudicated youth.

When I became a parent, I felt a desire to support parents who were mandated to engage in services with the child welfare system. I believe that all children should be with their parents if possible. When I started working with parents in Child Welfare as a clinician, I could not find practical clinical tools to support comprehensive behavior change.

My initial role was to clinically assess parents, provide individual therapy, and engage them in a simple evidenced based, behavioral parenting intervention. While the program I was trained in is effective and I still utilize it regularly, it was not designed to ameliorate the conditions in the home that brought children into care. This is a tall order for a parenting program, which is why I spent years working inside and outside the child welfare system with families to understand and listen to their unique needs.