About Me
What is your background as a clinician?
A lot of my strengths and interests related to therapy are things I picked up as a kid. Family systems tend to shape each person to fit a role the family needs, and I took up the task of being “an even keel.” As many therapists do, I found my way into the field through personal experience as a consumer. Recovery from substance use disorders has been and always will be a core part of my practice, in no small part because it will always be an important part of my personal story.
With an ample supply of time and energy on my hands in early recovery, I dedicated myself to education. As a non-traditional student at the University of North Texas, I studied abroad in Taiwan, presented research on an older cohort of gay men and lesbian women at a national conference in Washington DC, and served students on campus the UNTWELL clinic.
During my internship and after my graduation, I worked with addiction treatment agencies across the full continuum of care, from detox to outpatient therapy. I was even fortunate enough to accompany many individuals throughout each and every level of that continuum. I still maintain my position as a part-time program therapist at All Points North in Dallas-Fort Worth because I love working as part of a strong interdisciplinary team and providing specialized treatment tailored for high-accountability professionals.
In early 2025, I joined my first group practice. Later in the same year, I rented my own office and hung my shingle as a solo practitioner.
How do you actually work with people in session?
Based on my experience as a client, a student, and a clinician, I view the quality of the therapeutic alliance as supreme conduit for change. It’s the connection that lets me challenge and comfort, push and pull, instigate and soothe. Clients will eventually forget what I say in sessions, but they’ll remember how they felt when we were working together.
I avoid speaking in popular and reified therapy language, or “therapy-speak.” I don’t typically see much therapeutic use in terms like narcissist, toxic masculinity, and boundaries. And, even if these things have merit as abstract ideas, all the categorizing and labeling usually isn’t helpful. We each have our own rich and unique interior worlds, personal histories, and relational patterns, and our language ought to reflect that.
This individualized approach makes it hard to say precisely what a typical session looks like, but I can share a handful of themes that I see come up with the population I work with. One is that many clients struggle to ask for help, usually because they don’t know what they need, don’t know how to ask, or don’t want to burden others. Another big one is recognizing limitations to serving others, with a lot of my clients carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders and still feeling like it somehow isn’t enough.
What do you do outside of work?
I always have some kind of athletic obsession like long distance cycling or ultramarathon running. It’s hard to describe, but it feels kind of like proving something or atoning for something, I’m not sure what. Lately I have been indoor bouldering, which as a bonus has deluded me into feeling control over my fear of heights and falling. Additionally, I’ve also become a bit a liability on the ski slopes this year. If I don’t make the US climbing team for Summer 2028, maybe I can make the ski team by Winter 2030.
I also like to do some technical and creative work. My woodworking is slowly getting more functional and less crappy, as is my sewing (mostly camping and athletic gear).
I’ve been happily married to my wife Alicia for over ten years. Alicia is also a therapist. We try to talk about things other than work, and also travel and go to shows and just generally hang out a lot together. We have a scrappy kitty with surly attitude and a mysterious past who we call Rosemary.