Therapist, relational strategist, and developer of The ISLAND Method™
Doing this work feels like breathing.
People ask me all the time whether sitting with this much pain every day is exhausting, and I find it just the opposite. I have the privilege of sitting with clients who come in having lost sight of who they are, and through the work we do together they end up not only reconnecting with themselves but emerging in ways they couldn’t have imagined when they first walked in.
Watching that metamorphosis happen, and being there with them through all of it, is one of the great joys of my life. What I didn’t expect was that 26 years in, that feeling would still be just as alive.
I am a licensed clinical social worker with a graduate degree from Loyola University Chicago and a practice that has always been centered on the same territory: the relational patterns that shape us, the dynamics that keep us stuck, and what it actually takes to get free.
Over the years that focus has taken me in directions I didn’t entirely plan, into the world of divorce consulting when I kept watching clients who had come out of toxic and destabilizing relationships arrive at one of the most consequential legal processes of their lives completely unmoored, dysregulated, and without access to the clarity they needed to make decisions that would shape the rest of their lives.
Through Life Transitions Counseling, I work with individuals, couples, and groups navigating the full range of relational difficulty, from emotionally abusive and addictive relationships to the complicated grief of leaving someone you still love, to every stage of the divorce process from the first question of whether to leave through the longer work of rebuilding on the other side.
For people already inside the legal process of divorce, the consulting practice exists to fill the space that legal representation alone cannot occupy.
That work includes staying grounded, making clear decisions under enormous pressure, preparing for evaluations and difficult conversations, and having someone in your corner who understands not just the logistics of what is happening but the relational and emotional dynamics driving it.
The relational strategy work runs alongside that, helping clients name and frame their experience in ways that land clearly with evaluators and Guardian ad Litems, identify the patterns that defined the marriage and how they are showing up in the legal process, and stay in a practical decision-making mode when every instinct is pulling toward an emotional one.
It also extends into what comes after, helping people navigate coparenting with someone they have a deeply complicated history with and approach the process of uncoupling as consciously and intentionally as possible.
I also teach other clinicians how to recognize and work effectively with victims of emotional abuse and narcissistic abuse and how attachment patterns drive the dynamics they are seeing in the room.
That teaching work and the clinical practice converged into something larger, a framework for relational recovery that became the foundation for the book I am currently writing.
The book, Undertow: The ISLAND Method for Breaking Free from Addictive Love, is built around the idea that recovery from a damaging relationship is not a straight line. It is a map you learn to read.
I speak, teach, and consult with other social workers and professionals in the family law space and have appeared on podcasts and in the media discussing emotional abuse, addictive relationships, and relational recovery.
I am based in the Chicago area and work with clients virtually.
Outside the office, I am someone who travels whenever possible and cannot seem to get enough of Italy, with a first African safari on the horizon that I have been looking forward to for longer than I can remember.
I host small dinner parties for people I love, spend weekend mornings at farmers markets, and share my home with Gracie Belle, who has strong opinions about most things.
My daughter and son-in-law live ten minutes away, which I am aware is one of the great gifts of my life.
Whether you are navigating a difficult relationship, divorce, relational recovery, or a major life transition, the work begins with understanding the patterns shaping your life and creating a more intentional way forward.
The work begins by understanding the relational patterns shaping your life, how they formed, why they repeat, and what they continue to cost you. From there, the focus becomes clarity, grounded decision-making, and creating a way forward that is intentional rather than reactive.
Every engagement is structured, relationally informed, and tailored to the realities of the person sitting across the room.
Proven methods refined through 25+ years of clinical practice.
Tailored to your unique situation and goals.
Deep insight into the dynamics that keep you stuck.
Clear next steps for healing and decision-making.
Whether you're navigating a difficult relationship, facing the realities of divorce, or working to better understand patterns that feel impossible to break, you don’t have to do it alone.
This is a structured, thoughtful process designed to help you gain clarity, organize your thinking, and move forward with intention.
