Awareness and mindfulness are often used to describe the same thing. They are closely related, but I think there is a useful distinction between them. Awareness has to do with what catches our attention. It might be something we see, a sound we hear, a sensation in our body, or a thought that suddenly occupies our mind. Something stands out, draws our attention, and becomes part of our experience. Mindfulness invites us to consider what happens next. What do we do with what w

I have been thinking about the relationship between comfort and safety, and how easily we can mistake one for the other. They are related, but they are not the same. Comfort is often associated with familiarity. We know what to expect, we understand the environment, and we have some idea of how things will unfold. There is a certain ease in being somewhere familiar, doing something we have done before, or spending time with people we know. Safety is different. It has more to

The artwork throughout this website includes AI-generated images created to help illustrate my work, ideas, and therapeutic approaches. In some areas, the available stock imagery does not adequately capture the experiences, emotions, or concepts I hope to communicate. These images are a way of bringing those ideas to life while I continue to develop my work and explore more personal forms of artistic expression. My hope is to eventually replace them with commissioned artwork

Three movements for exploring ourselves, our relationships, and our experiences. My work is organized around three movements: Look Within, Look Around, and Move Through. Each offers a different way to explore the experiences, relationships, and beliefs that shape our lives. Look Within explores our internal world. It is an opportunity to organize our thoughts, examine our beliefs, and develop frameworks that help us understand what we carry. Through reflection, mindfulness, a

What does it mean to feel safe? Safety influences everything we have been exploring so far. It affects our ability to be present, the intentions behind our decisions, and the choices we make about how we participate in the world. But safety is a personal experience. What helps one person feel safe might do very little for someone else. We each have different needs, experiences, boundaries, and conditions that influence our sense of security. For some people, feeling safe migh

How often do you stop to consider the choices you make? We make countless decisions throughout the day. Some are deliberate. Others happen so quickly that we barely recognize them as choices. We respond to situations, make decisions, and move on to whatever comes next. Each decision is influenced by something. It might be our needs, our interests, our responsibilities, our experiences, or the way we feel in that moment. Sometimes we know exactly why we make a particular choic

What draws you to do the things you do? Our decisions usually have a reason behind them. Sometimes it is a need, sometimes a desire, and sometimes a simple interest in something we want to experience. These influences shape where we go, what we do, and how we participate. I want to explore intention and what it means to recognize the reason behind a choice. Intention can be a big question. It can lead us to explore purpose, meaning, identity, and our place in the world. But i

What does it mean to be present? It is one thing to be physically present in a room. It is another to be present in your mind and body. How do you show up? What do you notice about yourself? What are you experiencing in that moment? Sometimes we can be physically present while our attention is somewhere else. We might be thinking about what others think of us, worrying about what someone might say, or anticipating what could happen next. We can spend so much time thinking abo

I was inspired by a friend who had the courage to share his experience. In fact, I feel like I know him better now, knowing what I know and recognizing something we have in common. I, too, have been challenged by suicidal ideation. I spent a lot of my life in a downward spiral that often led me to think that ending my life would solve a problem. I was the problem. Much of that came from feeling like I did not fit anywhere. I struggled with belonging, and there are still times

Looking at myself and my journey with and through my darkness, I recognize the pressure that comes with it. There is pressure to be quiet. To wear a mask. To make life comfortable for everyone else while I am crumbling underneath it. Maintaining appearances takes energy. It also makes me a good actor. Perhaps even a good liar, because you might believe that I was never in pain. That I was never suffering. The better I become at hiding my suffering, the less credible my suffer

Come sit with me in the dark. I know you’re there. I know you feel lost. I was once lost too. The dark was scary. I couldn’t see where I was going. I couldn’t see anything. I would trip and hurt myself, and every fall seemed to add to my anxiety. Everything piled on. Things are different now. I’m not really sure how it happened, or even why. Maybe at some point I broke my flashlight and stopped trying so hard to find my way. I started using my eyes instead. At first, it was d

Looking within can be challenging. We carry a lifetime of memories, experiences, and narratives that fill the space inside us. Some are easy to recognize. Others have been with us for so long that we no longer question their presence or the influence they have on our lives. Trying to sort through all of this can feel overwhelming. Where do you begin when you don't know what you're looking for? How do you make sense of what you find when everything seems connected? Part of the

What would it be like to consider the bottles you carry and how you store them? Bottling things up has become a common way of managing what we feel. We put things away when we aren't ready to feel, think, or grieve. Sometimes, we're simply not ready. What if we created a structure to hold those bottles? A place where they could be stored safely and securely, without the worry of them falling, breaking, or spilling their contents before we're ready. I'd like to explore that wi

My life has been full of loss. People I have loved have died. Relationships have ended. Jobs have come to an end. Roles I once occupied have changed or disappeared. I have left places and communities behind. I have also had to let go of versions of myself. Some of those changes were chosen. Others were not. For a long time, I thought about these experiences in terms of whether they were good or bad. I am learning to think about them differently now. They were changes. Some hu

There is a particular kind of grief that comes from craving connection. We want companionship. We want friendship. We want to know people and to be known by them. Sometimes we meet someone and feel something between us that makes us want to move closer. We talk. We laugh. We notice things about each other. We begin to reach out. And sometimes we get it wrong. The connection we felt may have been real for us, but it was not shared in the same way by the other person. That can

I've been thinking about ghosting lately. Not so much in romantic relationships. If someone disappears before a relationship has really begun, there is still a loss, but much of what is lost is potential. There was a possibility of a future that never happened. A hope that something might develop. When that person disappears, that possibility disappears with them. There is a kind of death in that. But friendship feels different. When a long friendship ends through ghosting, y

It has been a long time since I thought about you. The moments when you come to mind have become less frequent. The reminders have become less frequent too. The things you liked, the things that made you laugh, the conversations we used to have. Even those have started to fade. I suppose that is what happens when a relationship becomes complete. Over time, the need for the exchange, the company, the sound of someone's voice, and the feeling of their presence can fade. That do

Starting this new chapter took time to settle into. It took even longer to figure out who I was outside of my old life. The strange part is that, even while I was living that life, I did not really know who I was. My identity had become intertwined with my work. Who I was became what I did, and the sense of purpose I gained came largely from the job. That was especially true during my 20 years in the military. I joined when I was 18. At that age, I did not have a clear sense

As I begin this new chapter of my work, I have been looking for language that describes what I do and what it is like to work with me. I have settled on three movements: Look Within, Look Around, and Moving Through. These describe the three areas I continue to explore in my own life and in my work with others. The first is Look Within. Looking within means paying attention to your relationship with yourself. It means examining the stories you have developed about who you are,