Plate IV — The Naturalist

I came to this work the long way.

Before I was a therapist, I was an artist. Before that, a body learning to listen to itself — through over two decades of yoga, Buddhist meditation, and somatic practice that began long before I knew it would become my profession.

My path ran from fine arts through neuroscience, into motherhood, and through my own late understanding of my neurodivergent mind. Each of those turns taught me something no textbook could: that we don't think our way out of patterns that live in the body, and that the seasons when we feel most undone — new motherhood, burnout, the unraveling after a long masking — are often the beginnings of a truer form.

I'm now a Registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist at Placer Marriage Family Therapy, Professional Corporation in Rocklin, where I work with mothers, neurodivergent adults, and anyone whose nervous system is asking for a different kind of attention.

How I think about therapy

I see therapy less as fixing what's broken and more as tending what's transforming. My approach is somatic and trauma-informed at its foundation: we work with the nervous system, not against it, pacing everything to what your body can actually integrate. I bring a contemplative sensibility into the room — steadiness, presence, and a deep respect for the intelligence of your own process.

And I bring lived experience. I'm a mother of two. I'm neurodivergent. My marriage spans two countries, and I've been the foreigner at my own in-laws' table — so I know from the inside what it means to build a home between two worlds. You will not have to translate yourself for me.

Because I came to therapy from the arts, creativity has a seat in my office — and we'll probably talk about what making things looks like in your life.

Training & certifications

Credentials

Registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, AMFT #144704
Supervised by Megan Paterson, LMFT #53371 · Employed by Placer Marriage Family Therapy, Professional Corporation

Curious whether we'd be a good fit?