Bio

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. 

Due to my background in speech therapy, and the lack of explicit reading instruction in the school system for children with language-based learning difficulties, I have become a volunteer trainee at the Scottish Rite, Halifax Learning Centre for Children in Dartmouth, where we apply the Orton-Gillingham Method for treating dyslexia. This is a very effective, deeply thoughtful way of helping children with reading and writing challenges. I also offer the Orton-Gillingham Method in my private practice, which is covered by insurance as speech-language therapy. I am currently not taking new clients in the Orton-Gillingham Method. 
 
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.