About

I came to this work through research before I came to it through practice.

I started in 2009 as a research assistant and then project manager in Dr. June Tangney’s Human Emotion Research Lab, studying moral emotions and recidivism in offender populations — work that shaped how I think about shame, self-forgiveness, and what actually moves people. Before that I studied affective forecasting, causal and counterfactual thinking at the Wilson Social Psychology Lab, and emotional regulation, aging, and prefrontal EEG asymmetry at the Virginia Affective Neuroscience lab.

Alongside the research: meditation leader at Northern Virginia Mental Hospital, pastoral care volunteer at INOVA supporting end-of-life transitions for patients and families, and certification as an EMT in 2012 — with a small side job teaching about and selling medicinal teas.

I earned a Master’s in Counseling and Human Development from GW in 2016 and began the road to licensure in 2017 under a supervisor I was lucky to find, Katie Clark at Sunstone Counseling. Between 2017 and 2020 I taught graduate students in counseling, which followed earlier work teaching test-taking and learning strategies — a kind of teaching I’ve never quite stopped enjoying.

Since 2020 I’ve worked closely with communities thinking seriously about existential risk, running groups and consulting with people whose work asks a lot of them, first in Washington, DC and Austin, and now largely virtually. In 2021, with Damon Sasi, Ewelina Tur, and Danica Wilbanks, I helped launch the Mental Health Navigator to make mental health support easier for that community to find.

I’m currently developing a protocol to help therapists working with people in AI bootstrap self-care, and self-compassion in particular.

Outside the work

I spend about half my life in Spain, where I feel most at home. Traveling — particularly to see and climb mountains — is a large part of how I take care of myself. Some favorites: Mt. Rainier, Mt. Batur, and Mont Blanc, with special mention to the Rockies and the Smokies.

I also run long distances, sculpt, take long drives, and read obscure literature. A few books that reached me early and have stayed: I Am a Strange Loop (Douglas Hofstadter), Love and Will (Rollo May), The Black Pearl (Henry Bayman), The Artist’s Way (Julia Cameron), and King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (Robert Moore).