My grandmother once said to me “You’ve done so many things!” and looking back at my younger years, I agree. I have worked as a farmhand, a chocolatier, a laboratory supervisor, a researcher, a personal chef, a babysitter, an educator. After I got my undergraduate degree I wanted to do something useful to others and meaningful to myself. I chose to study clinical social work.

Sometimes my friends and clients ask versions of the same question: “Does being a therapist make it hard to be a good friend?” or “Don’t your friends tell you all their problems?” The answer is complex, and the reality is that some of the things that make me a good friend contribute to making me a good therapist. Here are a few things that I believe, and that ground me in the world personally and professionally:

• It is good to be of service

• Community is possible

• Every human being is equal

• Human behavior is mutable

With these things in mind, and a great deal of professional training, it is the goal of New Soil Counseling to work hard in every case to create a world where clients feel empowered to live their lives fully. If I do my work well enough, eventually you will not need me anymore.

P.S. yes, that is me, in 1992. We all carry our inner child within us.