In high school, I was in a car wreck where I sustained a traumatic brain injury that caused me to lose my sense of self and became chronically tired, nauseous, and unable to manage my emotions. After this event, my personality completely shifted, and suddenly, where I was once a person who loved and excelled in math, I was unable to do the most basic problems. Even stranger, I found myself drifting towards that which I was previously averse to – the domain of art, psychology, and philosophy. Even though I felt these new interests building inside me, I marched ahead with the old persona of whom I thought I knew myself to be.

In my early undergraduate years at Texas A&M, I found myself following in the footsteps of someone who I no longer was, trying to secure a degree in which I held no interest. In the back of my mind, I felt this was wrong but kept ignoring the nagging feeling that came with me to every class until it eventually blew up in my face, where a premature quarter-life crisis ensued. In this valley, I realized the only way forward was to pursue what was meaningful to me, follow my interests, and be my authentic self. I decided to turn around completely from my STEM-coded degree and pursue what I was already studying outside of class – psychology.

I come from a long line of farmers and cattlemen. A big thing in that culture is just to put your head down, work hard, and get the job done. While I still see the value in this precept, its fatal flaw is that it causes one to ignore the value of emotions – treating them as if they are nothing but obstacles to overcome. While it is true that emotions can sometimes be nothing but obstacles caused by irrational beliefs, they are often a signal that something in your life needs to change. For too long, I ignored those signals, but through therapy, I realized they were not something to be neglected but to be listened to, analyzed, and understood. If you just put your head down and work, you may travel too far without realizing you’re on the wrong road or notice that you missed an important turn. However, it is never too late to look up, reassess, get your bearings, and choose the path that best suits you.

As a therapist, I aim to build an authentic relationship with my client and provide a space that is conducive to exploration, discovery, and understanding. It is my belief that we are the expert of our being and have the autonomy to decide what kind of healing we are seeking. It is my job to nudge my clients in a chosen, customized direction. In the course of our work together, we may have deep, exploratory, and emotional conversations, or work on things that are more practical and pragmatic – it all depends on the needs and goals of each client. My goal is to help find meaning in life and help work towards what is most vital  with a head up and eyes focused forward, paying attention to the road ahead.

In my free time, you can find me on my family ranch tending to cattle, watering my garden, playing fetch with my best bud Kova, swinging a kettlebell, in the kitchen testing out a new recipe, attempting to ferment something, or binge-reading books on whatever interesting thing grabs my attention.