As a Psychotherapist with over 10 years of mental health counseling experience that began while serving as a U.S. Army Counselor, or Mental Health Specialist, in the year 2000, I have acquired a broad understanding of human woes and what types of therapeutic interventions are most useful for many different types of people. For instance, when counseling families I have found that a Multi-systems approach to therapy is most helpful in pointing out long-standing family patterns of relating. In individual therapy I have found that a more intra-psychic and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapeutic approach, also known as Zen Therapy, uncovers hidden patterns of attaching the notion of "self" to thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Letting go of inner-attachments through MBCT can be attained through mindfulness meditation within a deeply therapeutic and trusting environment where I lend to clients an unconditional positive regard.

I have had the privilege of lending my face-to-face therapy services to many people with a wide array of problems throughout my long career and have had the opportunity to travel the world as a Clinical Mental Health therapist. My mentors while in the service took their time and taught me invaluable lessons throughout my years of hands-on therapy experiences.

Some of my values as a therapist
I will never talk down to clients or over-simplify my message becausue that is insulting and patronizing. I will respect your intelligence and really try hard to listen to your way of relating and what you are saying to me. I will do my best to make you comfortable and to meet you right where you are; emotionally, spiritually, and in thought.

I will always welcome feedback and am grateful when clients tell me that I am "way off" about something so that we will maintain an authentic counseling relationship in therapy. I am YOUR therapist and at your service, not the "expert," that's your job. I can help guide you towards peace and joy but only you will do the work to maintain those states of being. Also, I will always learn better ways to relate to clients and will never believe that I have got the job "down." I think that any therapist who thinks that they have all of the answers already is fooling both themselves and their unfortunate clients- don't believe the hype.

Thirdly, I am a street-smart therapist who went through foster care, Hale Kipa, and Hawaii family court as a teen with a psychotically mentally ill mother. I realized the need for improvements in our care for hurt and abused keiki and this is what prompted me to learn more about this field and drove my passion and deeply personal understanding for my work. I have experience working in a residential treatment facility with adolescent boys with level-5 care needs, or "severe emotional and behavioral problems," so that they might just stay out of prisons and mental institutions. I found that some of my most rewarding work.

Where I've been and where I come from

Having lived in Seoul, Korea, for one year as a U.S. Soldier Mental Health Specialist working in the Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital's Psychiatric Department, I gained a unique perspective on how much that ethnicity and culture plays a role during the therapy process. I always strive to respect and understand client diversity, i.e., race, gender, ethnicity, economic status, and how much that it plays into belief systems, lenses, and values. Most recently, I worked as an Itinerant Therapist for 3 remote villages in arctic Alaska- an amazing immersion into Inupiaq, or "Eskimo," ways of living and an experience that I will cherish and gain strength from in my work as a therapist forever.

I have recently moved back to my hometown of Kailua, Hawaii, after having been gone for the past 10 years and am finally able to settle down from my travels to the only place that I have ever called "home," beautiful Hawaii Nei. Because of all of my travelling- no, I do not have a license yet, that won't be for another year for the state of Hawaii. What I DO have is worldly and rich life and mental health counseling experiences that allow me to relate to clients on a deeply empathic and genuine level that many other therapists can only dream of. 

Kokua
Here is a quote that sums up how importantly that I feel about my service, or "kokua," to others:

“Service is the virtue that distinguished the great of all times and which they will be remembered by. It places a mark of nobility upon its disciples. It is the dividing line which separates the two great groups of the world — those who help and those who hinder, those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute and those who only consume. How much better it is to give than to receive. Service in any form is comely and beautiful. To give encouragement, to impart sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self-confidence and awaken hope in the hearts of others—in short, to love them and to show it—is to render the most precious service”

— Bryant S Hinckley

I believe that it is imperative that we, as leaders in the field of mental health, strive towards grasping the concept of diversity and the realization that Hawaii is a richly diverse place. This way, we may better understand the obstacles that we face as therapists, clients, and mostly, community members. It is within this understanding that we find common ground and safe containment of feeling expressions- that is where the genuine healing begins.

Education

Antioch University, Seattle, WA
Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling
2007

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology
1995

Licenses, certifications, and awards
I am a Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Intern and Associate member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT) and the Hawaii Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (HAMFT).