While most professionals in the industry have chosen “a side” (the addict vs the betrayed) and offer $20k-$300k intensives, retreats, and elite programs, I’ve gone the opposite route.

I’m not about serving one half of the couple for mere days to weeks – that doesn’t work (trust me with 7 years of my husband’s sobriety under his belt, we know what works and what doesn’t work!).

I’m in this for the long-haul, approaching the recovery journey from the couples and family perspective while giving each individual the space they need to shine in the journey.

I’m here, by you and your partner’s side, step by step, in each stage of the recovery journey.

As a wife and mom, I know just how much is on the line when getting into recovery – it’s your family.

That’s why I specialize in working with couples (that often have kids) who have already invested in individual therapy, worked on processing the past and initial betrayal trauma and are ready to begin seeing massive changes in themselves, their relationship, and their family!

In therapy your therapist listens, and reflects, listens some more, and maybe gives some suggestions on things to do. However, as amazing as your therapist is, you realize you need more.

You need to start building out your recovery team at this point in recovery if you want to see real lasting, concrete changes.

That’s where I come in.

You know when you first went bowling as a kid and you threw the bowling ball down the lane and it ended up in the gutter?

Well, I won’t let your recovery choices land you in the gutter as I act as a “bumper” in your recovery journey.

I know the pitfalls and fatal mistakes and choices that can happen and I’ll guide you through each and every road bump along the way.

Each recovery stage will require new skills, continued growth, and bring new situations that will need to be addressed pre-emptively to have long-term success. That’s why I’ve created services that take you from D-Day through the first couple years of your recovery!

 

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Now I know you came here to learn more about me, so I’ll give it to you straight!

When I was 15, my passion for understanding human behavior and healthy relationships began. Originally, I pursued a writing degree at SCAD, until I realized I wanted to get a degree in Forensic Psychology. I transferred to John Jay College of Criminal Justice and attained my Bachelors in Forensic Psychology.

While at John Jay, I had amazing professors, got accepted into the Peer Counseling program, interned at the Center For Family Justice as a Victim Advocate working with victims of domestic and sexual violence, and pursued research in my areas of interest.

While finishing my Bachelors, I met Jak, my now husband. Little did I realize he was hiding a porn addiction. With my forensic psychology background, I had the knowledge and skills to help us turn our relationship around, because back then there weren’t as many resources or professionals in the field to help us through our journey.

I eventually went on to get accepted at Fairfield University and began my Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and while the head of the program was truly impressed with my skillset and natural ability, I realized I preferred coaching over therapy as a profession.

I wanted to help clients beyond the 50-minute hour each week. I wanted to be more hands on, creative, personal, and frankly more results based.

I found I enjoyed working with clients that were ready and motivated to take action versus clients that didn’t want to be there but “had to” whether for legal reasons or because their spouse “dragged them” there.

I knew I could help more people through the coaching, mentoring, teaching, and consulting approaches than a therapeutic approach – so I made a huge decision to leave the program and continue my coaching career.

Soon after that, I was approached by Dr. Cali Estes of The Addictions Academy to create and teach with my co-coach, Chloe, the National Certification For Sex Addiction Coaches.

I was honored that Dr. Cali Estes saw how valuable our Phoenix Model approach to sex addiction and betrayal trauma was.

This was always a dream of mine – to ensure coaches and therapists out there had solid ethical training to work with clients recovering from sexual addiction and betrayal trauma.

I knew from personal experience as well as reports from clients just how uneducated and harmful well-meaning therapists have been in their recovery journey.

Chloe and I buckled down and spent about a year creating that certification. Since then, we’ve been running the certification, live, a couple times per year for the past couple of years while also having a self-study option available. We also host supervisions for the new coaches at The Addictions Academy multiple times per month and truly enjoy our work in helping the newly certified coaches to begin their careers.

Not only do I get to ensure there are trustworthy, educated, and qualified professionals entering the field, I get to continue working with amazing clients privately.

You’ll learn – if you continue to hang around -that we believe you can “pick up the pen and be the author of your own story,” any time you choose to take leadership of your own life.

Before you pick up that metaphorical pen and begin taking action and hiring people, let me say this first….Vet your help.

I’m always advocating for you and your partner to vet each and every professional you add to your recovery team over the years.

So, please, take a moment and reflect on whether it feels like we may be a good fit to work together in you and your families recovery journey.

If so, I’d love to get on a Meet & Greet with you and your partner to answer your questions and see what it would look like to potentially work together!

Still here? Want to know even more? Really? Okay, let’s keep it going!

I mentioned above that I was a cat lover, right? Well we’ve got 6 of them. Yup – I swear we are not crazy cat people… well, I mean, maybe a little bit?

But truly, we’re animal lovers in our home. It just ended up that we had cats because I had Luvas when I met my husband and didn’t know if he would get along well with dogs.

Seriously, I am passionate about rescuing animals and helping others be well educated on the responsibility of adopting. If I wasn’t so good at helping people, I’d have ended up working with animals.

Luvas is part Maine Coon and had his original owners done their due diligence on the breed they’d know that Maine Coon’s follow their people around and might have separation anxiety.

While Luvas was rejected from his original adopters, I knew the proper way to introduce cats, so when Jak and I moved in together and we knew it was time to add to our little family – Jak adopted Emily. While Luvas was originally scared of “Lil Em” as we call her, they soon became the best of friends.

Over the years, after our son was born, we added to the family and are now living happily in in the mountains of Connecticut, surrounded by nature and loving every moment of it!

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