As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, I fell in love with occupational therapy when I volunteered at a rehabilitation center. I remember how at first glance it looked like our first client was just there to recover from her hand injury, but her hand function was the key to her ability to perform her important roles in life which was deeply connected to her mental health and well-being. The relationship that was required to make this healing possible, and the integration of a person-centered approach was what hooked me. I am dedicated to building a relationship with my clients as it provides the essential foundation for healing. We are in this together.
The holistic approach of occupational therapy made so much sense to me, and I could see early on that it is so difficult to address the physical body without also attending to the psychological, thinking, emotional and sensory components that make up me and you. I followed that new found passion and earned my doctorate in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007.
Looking back, I can now see a common thread throughout my life. I so appreciate how connecting body, mind and the environment one lives in has supported me in cultivating clarity and reducing stress and anxiety in my life. Complementing my degrees was my avid yoga and mindfulness practices, eventually leading to me becoming a teacher. My personal experience led me to include yoga and mindfulness techniques within my occupational therapy practice. My clients and I quickly realized that this greatly increased our effectiveness in therapy and had a transformative effect as we started to see better results, faster. This led me to pursue a Certification in Yoga Therapy and I am now a Certified Yoga Therapist since 2017 through the International Association of Yoga Therapists. I am also certified in Yoga Nidra, a practice dedicated to optimizing healing.
Throughout my career I have integrated these values. My early career includes over 13 years of experience as an occupational therapist at Barrow Neurological Institute in areas of inpatient rehabilitation, acute care, and outpatient neurological rehab, movement disorders, pulmonary rehab and cancer care. I enjoy teaching about my passion and have had multiple speaking engagements on the integration of yoga and mindfulness into rehabilitation including at prominent rehabilitation conferences such as AOTA Annual Conference & Expo, the Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence Conference, The Barrow Neurological Institute, and the Adaptive Sports USA Conference. I am also a Certified Kinesiotape Practitioner (CKTP), and trained in MBCT, Mindfulness Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
In my free time, I enjoy my yoga practice, hiking, and most of all, spending time with my husband and three children.
