Frequently Asked Questions
Where is your office?
My office is in my home studio near downtown Sandpoint, Idaho. Here is the address:
529 Cedar Street Sandpoint, ID 83864-1535
It’s on the corner of 6th and Cedar. The entrance to the office is at the end of the driveway at the French doors.
There is no waiting room, so arriving on time is best. There’s also no public bathroom available, so please take care of your personal needs before the appointment.
Where should I park?
Is your office handicap-accessible?
What are your hours?
Can I schedule a free consultation with you?
Yes! Please do. Call (208) 843-3638.
Do you provide telehealth sessions?
How long is a typical session?
Most sessions are 55 minutes.
Longer sessions can be scheduled for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or other expressive arts experiences for which extra time is helpful. We can plan and schedule these extended sessions in advance.
How do I pay?
Do you take insurance?
How do I schedule an appointment?
Most appointments are arranged by calling me at (208) 843-3638. I will call back within 24 hours.
Do you have a cancellation policy?
Who are your clients?
I do individual therapy with adults (18-80), parent coaching, and family therapy.
I also help couples strengthen their communication and emotional bond.
Some of my services are available to ex-pats living outside the United States. Others are only available if you’re living in the country. We can talk more about this when you schedule your first appointment.
Do you work with people who are culturally and ethnically different from you?
I’ve always enjoyed a strong life and work connections working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. I recently spent ten years living and working overseas. Currently, half of my client caseload is ethnically different from mine.
A big part of understanding and healing ancestral wounds is remaining curious about the overt and subtle messages we receive from each other based on our cultural imprinting.
How do I know if you are the therapist for me?
Our relationship will be central to our work. That’s true between any therapist and client.
Listen into your body and note the feelings and impressions that have come up as you have spent time on my website. First impressions mean something and are important, so dial into that impression.
If we work together, our relationship will mature. I spend regular time each session checking in with you about how you are experiencing our therapeutic relationship.
What is expressive arts therapy?
It focuses on non-verbal processes and employs various art modalities (e.g., drawing, painting, poetry, storytelling, dance, music, or drama) in conjunction with verbal and somatic therapy.
Expressive arts therapy uses simple steps to experience your concerns, reintroduce you to your innate creativity, enhance your problem-solving abilities, and expand your experience of yourself.
Do I need to be an artist to do expressive arts therapy?
No, because we focus on your process, not the product.
You can bring it into the outside world by giving shape, color, and movement to a feeling, thought, behavioral pattern, or dream. When you do this, you can approach it with distance and a different perspective.
Curiosity is the best skill you can bring to these sessions: What is this? What does it mean? What does it want me to know now?
What are your training and experience?
I began doing dreamwork in my late 20s when I stopped using substances and noticed my dreams were very vivid. I started painting and collaging images from my dreams to access more of what was inside me.
Dreamwork, artwork, dance, and rituals held me for the next 12 years. At the age of 40, I was trained as an expressive arts therapist at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I received my Master of Arts in counseling psychology.
What types of therapy do you do?
What can I expect from therapy?
Therapy is unique for everyone, as we all have unique lives, circumstances, and ways of working through things. Therapy, even talk therapy, is a creative process of accessing inner resources, finding calm, new energy, and new solutions to situations that once made you stuck.
Therapy can be short-term and focused on a specific situation giving you a resolution to address the problem in your life and move on. Attending therapy weekly for months or year+ allows you more opportunities to work through aspects of your past and gives you a greater experience of personal growth and changes in your life.
What's for lunch?
This is my favorite meal of the day, where I like to load on a variety of food!
My current favorite lunches are soups, roasted vegetables, and some flatbread. My taste for bread was transformed when living in the Middle East for ten years and having fresh tandoor bread on every street corner.