A career spent studying people under pressure

I didn't start out in a therapy office. I started on a soccer field, first as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and later at Gardner-Webb University, working with student-athletes navigating an intersection I would spend the next two decades studying: performance and identity, where excellence is demanded and vulnerability is often hidden.

From there, my work expanded into university leadership. Over a 15-year career in higher education, I moved from work in retention and student success to serving as Dean of Students and eventually Vice President of Student Development at Gardner-Webb University.

As Vice President, I served on the President's Cabinet and provided leadership across a broad portfolio that included Housing and Residence Education, Career Development, Student Life, Campus Recreation, the Counseling Center, Title IX, University Police, International Student Services, and Diversity initiatives. The work required more than managing departments. It meant leading people, navigating competing priorities, responding to complex situations, making difficult decisions, and understanding how policies, culture, communication, and organizational systems affect the people within them.

Those years gave me a front-row seat to people and organizations under pressure. I saw what happens when expectations are high, when change is difficult, when relationships become strained, and when leaders have to make decisions without perfect answers. I also saw the difference healthy leadership, clear communication, strong relationships, and thoughtful systems can make.

In 2020, I stepped away from higher education and moved fully into my work as a therapist. Today, as a licensed clinical mental health counselor, I work with individuals, couples, and families to understand the stories, relationships, experiences, and patterns shaping their lives. That work has only deepened something my years in leadership first taught me: understanding people requires understanding the environments and systems around them, too.

Today, my work brings those two worlds together. I understand the individual sitting across from me, but I also understand the leader carrying responsibility, the team trying to work better together, and the organization navigating change. Whether I am working with one person or an entire organization, I am interested in many of the same questions: What is shaping what is happening here? What patterns keep repeating? What is getting in the way? And what could become possible with greater clarity, connection, and intention?