Breakthrough Counseling

 Trauma therapist, educator & writer. I come alongside adults through seasons of change, loss, and healing, offering therapy and practical resources for greater safety, understanding and growth. 

 Q: What do you really want from counseling? Honestly, don't you just want to ease your pain, stop the suffering, end your struggles, and arrive somewhere better? You don't have to love therapy to want relief. If you're struggling with complex trauma, PTSD, dissociation, DID, or relationship breakdowns and unexpected life transitions, Therapy at Breakthrough Counseling can not only provide mental health support and offer emotional release, but also, it may allow you to feel "seen" and reclaim your life. Using evidenced based modalities, like IFS, DBT, Somatic Experiencing, online therapy with Breakthrough Counseling may be just what you're looking for. I can accept most insurances, and partner with Headway for your convenience. 

Q: What will we talk about? In therapy sessions, we start by identifying the core problem, often beginning with your symptoms. The process can be messy and challenging, involving emotional expression, problem solving, and learning new ways of thinking and behaving.

Together we can create a new narrative that reflects your healing and growth. Therapy requires a certain amount of trust, courage, and persistence, but in the end, you'll gain confidence, resilience, and the freedom to build a fulfilling life.

Q: Shouldn't I know about your training? Of course! Sometimes it just inspires confidence, so here goes... I operate with a Michigan state license in Clinical Social Work. I've been practicing since 2003 in a variety of settings including psychiatric hospitals and community mental health. I started learning the ropes in private practice in 2014 and have been the owner and operator of Breakthrough Counseling since 2017. I've partnered with Headway and offer online sessions for your convenience and privacy. I've been working hard to keep up with best practices and the latest training in mood disorders and trauma care.

As a level 2 certified clinical trauma therapist, I use both body-based and cognitive approaches to healing. Body awareness, grounding, pendulation, titration, sequencing, and resourcing are among the techniques that we can explore using somatic experiencing techniques. Breath work and mindfulness are skills we can work to develop as well as skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. I am DBT certified and work to find the balance between release, coaching, and therapeutic connection. If this sounds like gibberish to you, most of all I just want you to know that I am committed to best practices and personal growth.

Will Everything Really Be Better Somewhere Over the Rainbow?

What if the place you long for—the place where you finally feel safe, loved, and whole—isn’t somewhere over the rainbow?

Dorothy believed Oz would give her what she needed. 

Many of us do something similar. We imagine healing will begin when we find the right relationship, achieve the right goal, understand the past, or finally become who we think we should be.

We keep walking toward our own version of Oz, hoping that once we arrive, everything will make sense.

But what if the path itself is part of the healing? What if belonging is not something we find at the end of the road, but something we learn to create within ourselves and with others along the way?

After more than two decades of working with people—and through difficult chapters of my own—I have learned that healing rarely happens the way we imagine.

Before becoming a therapist, I was a mother, graduate student, and part of a family. I dreamed of breaking the cycle of generational trauma with my children. I would do things differently. I would finish college, read books, attend Adult Children of Alcoholics meetings, and find a new way forward.

Then it happened.

The unthinkable.

My father ended his own life.

It changed me in ways I never could have anticipated.

As I moved through my grief and watched its effects on my children and marriage, I felt both its weight and the helplessness of not knowing how to stop it.

Were my dreams of creating a new generational story over?

As a graduate student and beginning social worker, I found support. I went to therapy. I learned new tools.

And here is what I discovered:

What happens to us can shape us, but it does not have to define us.

We do not have to remain frozen in the past.

Our diagnosis does not have to become our identity.

Trauma, grief, difficult relationships, and emotional dysregulation can change how we see ourselves and the world. 

They can teach us protective strategies that once made sense but eventually become limiting.

Creating a life worth living rarely happens in a straight line.

Sometimes healing means understanding our triggers and learning the difference between what is safe and what feels safe. 

Sometimes it means understanding why our protective parts seem to sabotage what we desperately want. 

Sometimes the intensity of our reaction belongs partly to an old wound—not just to what is happening today.

Healing can look like a breakthrough: an “aha” moment when something finally makes sense.

Maybe what once felt overwhelming becomes manageable.

Maybe you learn to set a boundary without feeling compelled to explain yourself.

Being understood without being judged is at the heart of therapy at Breakthrough Counseling, where I use evidence-based therapeutic models to guide our work together.

But therapy can be messy, too.

Growth and new coping tools can come through therapy, a book, a question, an AI conversation, a YouTube video, or an unexpected moment of insight.

That is why I decided to merge my work with my story.

Learning to take charge of our story, regulate our nervous system, quiet our inner critic, and replace condemning thoughts with self-compassion still may not keep us on the Yellow Brick Road.

And then I asked myself:

What if I don’t stay on the Yellow Brick Road?

Maybe the greatest gift is discovering that the Yellow Brick Road wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.

What if we really are brave, smart, and loving—just like the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man were all along?

Maybe learning which path belongs to us is the real work.

We can change direction.

We have choices.

We do not have to become someone completely different to become more fully ourselves.

Sometimes we simply need enough hope to keep walking.

Like what you read?

If these words resonate with you, I'd love to hear from you.