About
How well do you know yourself?
“Why do I keep doing this? When will I stop?” “This” may be anything from bad relationships to overspending to binging on ice cream to knuckling under to an abusive boss – or mother.
“Why is it so hard to make a decision? Why can’t I just do what I know I should? Why don’t I take better care of myself?”
Answers to these frustrating questions are often surprising and enlightening. We’ll dig deep together to find those answers.
But that’s just the first step
It knows your “why” isn’t enough. Next, we come up with a step-by-step approach to make changes.
Change is hard – let’s accept that. Change can start slowly with small steps.
Small steps add up to big shifts in how you feel about yourself, your relationships, and your situation.
Together, we’ll develop concrete action steps that may include reading, journaling, difficult role-playing conversations, art-making, list-making, and specific self-care that is not self-indulgent.
Together, we’ll practice skills and techniques to shift thought patterns from negative to positive and possible.
Before we meet, start writing down your dreams.
Write any dreams or fragments or even just images. Bring them with you to our sessions. Together, we’ll talk through what the images mean to you.
In dreams that tell a story, even a bizarre story, we’ll examine the patterns, interaction of characters, and where the energy is.
We’ll look at where that is mirrored in your waking life.
One rule of dreamwork is that dreams always bring you new information.
So even if the meaning of a particular dream seems instantly evident, there’s always more to learn.
Dreams have a way of stating a problem or situation as it is – in symbolic form – and also suggesting a solution!
Using your dreams, I can help you on your journey to a fulfilling life.
About Me
I practice my work with dreams.
Almost 40 years ago, I was on the brink. I was a young wife and new mother to our first baby. I was in a family business with my father, with whom I had a contentious relationship. I was exhausted and deeply unhappy. With my husband’s support – no, insistence – I sought help from a counselor who happened to be an Episcopal priest.
His first words to me as I sat tearfully in his office at our church were, “Do you dream? Do you remember them?” Stunned, I answered that sometimes I did remember my dreams. “Good,” he said, “Start writing them down. That’s what we’re going to use to get to the bottom of this.” I’ve kept a dream journal ever since.
Our work, together with my dreams, showed me aspects of myself I did not know. I had to acknowledge the things I was doing, attitudes I held, and unrealistic expectations of others were contributing to my unhappiness. That was the hard part.
The fun, cool, and absolutely dazzling part was learning the language of my dreams. I began to understand the profound symbolism of images that meant something unique to me. Also, I saw the humor in many of my dreams, leading me not to take myself so seriously!
My dreams led me through many trials and triumphs, including the realization that this dream work was the most important work I could be doing, almost 20 years after starting my first dream journal. I left the family business to become a counselor to help others know the life-giving possibilities that present themselves in our dreams.
A little more about me
I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and spent the first half of my adult life in the family retail luggage and gift business. I learned so much in that world, but another way of life called me. Led by my dreams, I decided to help others listen to their dreams, waking and sleeping. I graduated with a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from Mississippi College and obtained licensure (LPC) in 2007. I have been in private practice ever since. I also serve as a group therapist at a mental health clinic, Three Oaks Behavioral Health.
I love teaching workshops on dreamwork and have done so at Millsaps College in Jackson, at the Haden Institute near Asheville, NC, and at churches and other venues around Mississippi. I facilitate two dream groups, both of which have met regularly for over 20 years. I give all credit to the dreamers, who are also close friends, for encouraging me to make my midlife change.
When not helping people, I enjoy watching movies from the ’30s and ’40s, singing Renaissance choral music in my church choir, and having my grandchildren spend the night.