My Philosophy

I believe most couples who arrive at the edge of divorce are not failing at love. They are failing at a set of skills no one ever taught them.

I also believe — deeply, from personal experience — that lasting change in a relationship begins with honest self-examination. Not blame. Not score-keeping. Not waiting for your partner to go first. Real transformation begins when at least one person in the relationship is willing to look at their own role with courage and honesty.

That willingness quality is all I need from you to begin.

“I wished we had done this earlier. There are no regrets — we got a do-over.” — 44-year-old professional, coaching client

 

Why Couples Choose to Work With Me

I have been in the pain — not just studied it.

My work is grounded in the same honest, courageous self-examination I ask of my clients. That is not a clinical stance. It is a lived one. Couples feel the difference immediately.

I work with the whole picture.

Most coaches address communication. Most therapists address the past. I address both — the practical skills you need right now and the deeper patterns underneath that keep pulling you back into the same painful cycles.

I do not give up on hard cases.

Infidelity. Addiction. Multiple separations. Years of accumulated hurt. Your marital resume does not exclude you. — they are exactly the situations I am trained, experienced, and personally equipped to work with.

I meet you where you are — nationwide.

Through secure Video conference, I work with couples across all 50 states. In-person sessions available in the Kansas City area.

I offer both coaching and licensed therapy.

For couples in Missouri and Kansas, I provide licensed clinical therapy in addition to coaching. For couples nationwide, my coaching program delivers the same proven framework and results.

My Education and Experience

I hold a master’s degree in counseling and am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor licensed in Kansas and Licensed Professional Counselor in MO. With over 20 years of proven success helping couples transform even the most difficult relationships, I bring both the clinical depth of a licensed marriage counselor and the forward-focused, practical tools of an experienced relationship coach to every session.

I am also trained in the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) — a research-backed approach that helps couples move from ambivalence to committed, lasting change.

I Know What It Feels Like When a Marriage Is Hanging by a Thread

If you are reading this page, chances are your relationship is in a painful place right now. Maybe you have been here before — tried counseling, tried talking, tried waiting for things to get better on their own — and nothing has stuck.

I want you to know something before you read another word: I did not come to this work from a textbook. I came to it through lived experience — and that experience changed everything about the way I show up for couples.

 

My Story

More than two decades ago, I was a married woman carrying what should have been one of the most joyful experiences of my life — I was pregnant and ready to become a mother.

But at the very moment I was preparing to welcome new life, my world began to fall apart.

My spouse began using serious drugs. What started quietly grew into something shocking — painful consequences I could not have imagined, broken promises that mounted one after another, and a cycle of treatment attempts that never held. Despite his willingness to seek help, the using continued. The hope I extended kept being met with betrayal.

I was pregnant, deeply hurt, and utterly lost.

I sought counsel. I found a 12-step program. And the very first thing I encountered there stopped me completely:

“Let it begin with me.”

Something shifted in that moment. I immediately gained hope, strength, and a sense of direction I had not felt in years. I made the painful but necessary decision to leave the marriage — not in defeat, but with clarity.

And then I did something that changed the entire course of my life: rather than simply walking away, I committed to an honest examination of my own role. I learned to look at the plank in my own eye first. I examined my own faults, my own lacks in relationship skill, my own contributions to the demise of my marriage — with honesty, courage, and without self-destruction.

That process of self-examination and emotional growth did not just heal me. It ignited a calling.

Almost immediately, I began using what I was learning to help others — individuals and couples navigating their own relationship pain. What started as one person’s recovery pathway became the foundation of a practice that has now helped several hundred couples and individuals transform their committed relationships and their lives.

That foundation — honest self-examination, evidence-based tools, and the belief that real change begins from within — is the heartbeat of everything I do today.