Tom @ the mend collective

I was a child of a military family and, by the time I graduated high school in Fayetteville, NC, I had spent more time in Europe than I had in the United States. I attended UNC-Asheville for undergraduate study in Drama and then spent 20 years working in professional theater as a stage manager and props person, in New York and “on the road.” I received an MS in the Psychology of Culture from Walden University, an MSW from Simmons University, and a certificate in Applied Thanatology: Aging, Death, and Dying from University of Maryland. Since my career change to clinical social work, I have worked primarily in acute settings, with elementary and middle school children and their families, providing mobile crisis care for those experiencing mental and behavioral health crises and those struggling with substance use, providing domestic-violence-informed supportive counseling, and supporting the psychiatric consult team in a hospital. Along the way, my personal interests in the mind-body connection and somatics have led me to the practice of or trainings in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, yoga, Reiki, meditation, and reflexology.

With a lifetime of mobility and wholesale change, extended exposure to cultures that are not my own, and ambiguous loss that comes from being a military brat and then touring extensively with theatrical shows and experiences, I am keenly aware that your experience and identities are supremely unique to you and that you know your life better than anyone else. In the therapy room, I provide a compassion- and empathy-lined container within which we can safely explore those topics that you struggle to put into words. I provide a presence highly attuned to you, and have worked with a broad range of people including those experiencing grief and loss, depressive and anxious symptoms, those with histories of trauma, those with severe and persistent mental illnesses, and ages ranging from 6 years old to 88 years old. 

Whatever you might be experiencing, you don’t have to do it alone. Let’s explore together what strengths and resources already exist for you, work toward shifting your perspective when that might be appropriate, and collaborate toward building greater capacity to hold all the contradictions that come with being the awesome human being you already are.