In my life, I have always strived for wellbeing and growth. I started meditating in my teens in my native Germany, discovering early on the grounded presence mindfulness creates. These early experiences sparked my interest in change and personal growth. Initially, I decided to study speech-language therapy in my early 20s, as it seemed to offer a great practical training to become an effective therapist, with its emphasis on practice and supervision. After a few years as a generalist, I moved to England to take a Master’s Degree in Human Communication (part speech-language, part psychology). Eventually, I became a specialist in stuttering therapy and worked in England for seven years.
When I moved to Canada with my young family in the early 2000s, I had the opportunity to enroll in the Masters Program in Counselling at Acadia University, which I completed in 2010. It was my dream to become a practicing psychotherapist. While taking my degree, l continued to work full-time with children in the public school system as a speech-language pathologist. I decided to specialize in play therapy in 2016 and took the 180 hours foundational play therapy training with the Canadian Association for Play Therapy (CAPT) in Toronto. I recently became certified as a play therapist with the CAPT, having completed the practice and supervision hours required. I also offer supervision for play therapists.
I have also furthered my training in therapy modalities for adults and couples since graduating from Acadia. I have trained extensively in Internal Family Systems with Derek Scott of IFSCA. I find this modality to be the most rewarding and life changing, as it is a non-pathologizing model, and it sees all parts of you as having good intentions, even the ones that may get a diagnosis of anxiety, depression, Borderline Personality Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder etc. I have trained in Couples Therapy with Terry Real. I chose his approach, because it really connects how inner childhood wounds impact our ability to be relational, as supposed to reactive, with each other.
I live in the West End of Halifax with my family and my dog, BeeGee, whom I often conscript as an aspiring therapy dog. My office is in our home with a separate entrance and therapy space for my clients.