Why This Work Is Personal to Me
In 2014, I moved myself and two teenage sons from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Seattle, Washington. I had a well-thought-out plan for how the move would go, and a beautiful vision for how we would all adjust to our new environment.
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Well…that was REAL cute.
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I was counting on giving my sons different opportunities, building a life with my new husband, and continuing to grow professionally—because that’s what I believed a good mother, a committed wife, and a capable woman should do.
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What I didn’t count on was the negative impact the move would have on my relationships, the decline of my confidence, and how hard it was to trust myself to make decisions. The move didn’t simply challenge my plan. It challenged what I believed to be true about myself.
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I was over 40. I earned two degrees, became a licensed therapist, and overcame the statistical odds associated with being a Black woman raised in the South and single mother. I spent years proving that I could do hard things.
So why did this particular change leave me feeling so stuck and defeated?​​
What I came to understand personally has been reinforced throughout more than a decade of clinical practice. I have worked with women who are thoughtful, responsible, and highly capable. They lead teams, care for families, and make complex decisions across multiple areas of their lives. Yet a woman’s ability to manage her life is not the same as her agency to define it.
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A woman can make difficult decisions and still question whether she has the right to decide what she wants from her relationships, work, leadership, rest, love, or future. She may know how to meet every responsibility in front of her while having little space to consider whether the life she is managing reflects who she is or what she wants for herself.
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Many women who seek my support arrive asking some version of the same question: What’s wrong with me?
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They are trying to make sense of anxiety, burnout, grief, exhaustion, resentment, or strain in their personal and professional relationships. They assume they are the problem before asking whether the life they are working so hard to maintain may be contributing to what they feel.​
What My Clinical Work Has Confirmed
What I Bring to This Work
I help women make sense of what they are experiencing without making them the problem. I listen for what their responses have been protecting, the beliefs and conditions that shaped them, and what those responses are requiring from them.
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That means I do not examine your choices in isolation. We consider how family, faith, race, gender, relationships, workplace expectations, and generational survival have influenced what you learned to value, tolerate, fear, or take responsibility for. Context does not remove responsibility or agency. It helps explain what is influencing your choices so you can decide what should influence them now.
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I use direct questions, clinical and cultural context, body-based information, and practical reflection to help you decide what you want to do with what you understand. I may challenge the conclusions you have made about yourself, ask what outcome you are expecting, or question whether you have taken responsibility for something that was never yours to carry.
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I am not here to tell you who to become or push you toward a particular decision. My role is to help you make decisions you understand and can stand behind. This work should strengthen your trust in your own discernment, not make you dependent on mine.
​Many of the women I work with are mission-minded and deeply committed to making a difference in the lives of others. My work helps them bring that same care and intention to their own lives—examining what shapes how they function, lead, relate, and sustain the impact they want to make.
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High-functioning anxiety and depression
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Burnout, emotional depletion, and chronic over-responsibility
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Grief, and loss that often comes with life transitions or change.
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Personal development and self-leadership
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Hyper-independence and difficulty receiving support
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Relationship strain connected to personal growth and boundary shifts
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Identity development, self-trust, and intentional decision-making
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Across therapy, coaching, and speaking, I approach these concerns in context—considering how identity, relationships, culture, systems, and learned narratives shape how women understand themselves, respond to pressure, and make decisions about change.
My Areas of Expertise
Professional Background
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from the University of Central Arkansas. I am a Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Approved Clinical Supervisor with nearly two decades of clinical practice and behavioral-health leadership experience.
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My career has included direct clinical care, psychological assessment, behavioral-health program leadership, utilization management, care coordination, and the supervision and mentorship of developing clinicians. Working across community-based programs, institutional settings, adolescent treatment, and private practice has shaped how I understand the relationship between individual distress and the systems we navigate.
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Today, I am the founder of Awaken Wellness, PLLC and SheSHEDS® Self-Leadership Coaching, as well as the creator and host of the SheSHEDS® Podcast.
