It was working as a case manager in county mental health that I truly realized that I had a calling. Meeting with people from all backgrounds, who had undergone so many different lives, stressors, traumas, and difficulties opened my eyes to the vast possibilities that people held within them.

Helping others has been a passion of mine from a young age. Reaching out to those who needed support and helping them to find a better understanding of their situation and themselves. I did not always know the terminology or have the education that I now possess, but that fundamental action of helping others through difficult times and finding meanings together with them was always present.

It was working as a case manager in county mental health that I truly realized that I had a calling. Meeting with people from all backgrounds, who had undergone so many different lives, stressors, traumas, and difficulties opened my eyes to the vast possibilities that people held within them. Despite all the events that had led them to struggle with their mental health, I saw tremendous and at times unbelievable resilience, inner strength, ingenuity, and potential within the people I served. I knew then that I wanted to help these people on a deeper and more fundamental level than I was currently able to, and so I set out to become a therapist.

During that time, I immersed myself in the counseling process: not only as a student, but as a client as well. I went into counseling seeking resolution to internal problems which I had long held to be insurmountable. Problems which I had only been able to cope with via avoidance or denial, the methods of distancing myself from them to avoid their pain. These fears had plagued me intermittently for years, returning to me at night and in quiet moments to bring panic and terror, only to be pushed back down and forgotten again for a time.

With therapy, I was able to learn how to cope with that fear, to face it head on and build tolerance towards the terror that it invoked. I was able to gain greater understanding of myself, of what contributed to that fear, of what triggered it, of what ways I could make it genuinely better rather than simply avoiding it. With time, I came not only to cope with it more effectively, but even to move past it completely. The attacks of terror that struck me at night for so many years now feel distant and unfamiliar, like something from a past life.

My learning and my experiences have together formed a great influence on my style of counseling. I believe in the power of truly hearing and being present with clients, ensuring that the therapeutic space is safe and understanding and always seeking to better support the client through their struggles. A therapy session can always be a place to process and vent and be heard and understood when it’s needed most. Moreover, that venting and processing can be guided and investigated collaboratively to bring new insights and better understand oneself.

I also believe it is the task of therapy to equip clients with the skills and tools they need for three key aspects of life: understanding themselves and what they want, changing negative and unhelpful thoughts into helpful ones, and gaining control over pain and other strong emotions. For these tasks I approach therapy with an eclectic style drawing from Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. With the combination of these approaches, I believe clients can be best equipped to handle not only their current struggles, but those they will face in the future. The benefits don’t end at handling problems however: they help individuals to achieve their potential and reach the best version of themselves.

Outside of my schooling and work, I enjoy reading, writing, video and tabletop games, and spending time with my wonderful wife Claire. We live in west Fort Worth with our dog Tazzie.