Welcome
Welcome to Conscious Grace Therapy. A therapeutic space committed to helping people develop a mindful and intentional practice of grace within themselves, their lives and the people around them.
Approach
I started Conscious Grace as a therapeutic approach that allows you to access, discover and make peace with the parts of yourself that have been wounded or lost along your life's journey. It is in this rediscovery and reengagement with the perceived broken parts of ourselves that we begin to heal, find renewed strength and develop a vision for moving forward.
As we move through our lives, difficult, challenging or traumatic experiences force us to reject, deny, suppress, or give up on aspects of ourselves in order to cope, be accepted, receive love, maintain strength or gain success. This process creates an ongoing internal conflict as we continually strive to rid ourselves of the areas of perceived failure and significant emotional pain and hurt while striving to be the person we feel we ought to be. We end up living in the tension of trying to manage the "good and bad parts" of ourselves.
When we are divided against ourselves, it creates great psychological and emotional distress. In these situations, when life's circumstances such as grief, loss, unexpected transitions, betrayal or trauma happen, this internal conflict is exacerbated and becomes more than we can bear.
Conscious Grace is about finding a way of being---a path that allows you to no longer live in the tension---and to let go of the struggle as you embrace the parts of yourself you feel the need to reject, cannot make sense of or feel unable to make peace with.
The idea of grace is one people typically perceive as a beautiful ideal, but in reality and in their own experience has not been possible. Often it is easier to offer grace to other people but not to yourself. Instead, judgment, shame and discontentment seem to be the reality of our actual experience and grace remains an ideal hoped for.
At Conscious Grace Therapy, I will provide a safe, authentic space to explore this conflict, to walk alongside you and seek to understand your story, your relationships and your experiences. My goal will be to support you in reclaiming the fragmented parts of yourself through the mindful, intentional and conscious application of grace to yourself, your experiences and to others.
As long as we are at conflict within ourselves, we will inevitably be at conflict with life and with others. Resolving the relationship with self, then, is the means by which we regain the strength to enjoy our lives, grounded in the clarity and acceptance of who we are.
About Me
Before developing Conscious Grace Therapy, I provided individual, couples, family and group therapy at the Northwest Counseling and Wellness Center. In addition to providing therapy, I led meditation exercises and taught psycho-educational classes on forming a congruent self, a self that embodies a clear sense of passion, awareness, purpose and spirituality as a way to address a variety of issues ranging from depression, anxiety and relational trauma to substance abuse.
I am a systemic and experiential therapist and am trained in research based practices such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as well as mindfulness based practices that incorporate a more reflective, meditative, and inward focus.
As a result of living in three different countries, I value an integrative and holistic approach and am a trained Acu Detox specialist and can provide auricular acupuncture in addition to therapy.
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and have a Master's Degree in Professional Counseling from Texas State University and a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Taylor University.
Treatment Specializations:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Couples Counseling
- Family Counseling
- Grief and Loss
- Relational Conflict
- Divorce
- Parent-Child Relationships
- Trauma and Abuse
- Substance Abuse
- Unexpected Transitions
- Multi-cultural Issues
- Relationship to Self/Personal Growth
- Spiritual Development
Counseling Services
The ability to explore your actual feelings and experience is dependent on the nature of the therapeutic relationship. I work with my clients to foster an environment free from all judgment, performance and expectations and to create a relationship where the honesty of what you feel and experience is treated as sacred and essential.
INDIVIDUAL
Individual sessions provide an opportunity for you to truly express your raw feelings, thoughts and experiences, unfiltered and as they really are. Work, family, responsibilities and just life as it is can take you so far from your actual self that you start living on auto-pilot and the older you get, the more disconnected you feel from the child within you. Individual sessions create space to reengage the child, those desires that are so central to your nature but seem impossible to access. As we reengage those desires, we set out to free the child within you and to reconstruct a sense of self and to form a spirituality that is a more authentic expression of you.
COUPLES
A healthy romantic relationship creates space for those essential desires within you to be lived, felt and expressed. There are many reasons that may cause a relationship to stop creating space for such desires and instead to become a force that squelches those desires and over time takes you further from yourself. Since the success of a relationship is dependent on it's ability to create space to embrace each individual's desires, my couples work consists of both individual and couple's sessions.
GROUP
Explore your feelings, thoughts, experiences and perceptions in the context of relationships. Other people can provide an unexpected and necessary lens into our experience that will uniquely expand our understanding and our capacity to love ourselves and others.
There are two groups starting soon!
Group for Couples: Developing Emotional Intimacy in a Relationship.
Many couples I’ve worked with have expressed difficulty in developing and maintaining the emotional intimacy in their relationship. They desire a much stronger emotional connection but that bond often seems elusive. A lot of the counseling support couples usually get centers around learning better communication skills, learning about their personalities and needs, the five love languages, gender differences and needs (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) and better skills to handle conflict. These are all helpful skills and understanding to have but they are not enough to provide emotional intimacy. In this group, we’ll go beyond those skill sets and explore what it takes to develop emotional intimacy, a thriving emotional connection where you and your partner feel closer to each other on a consistent basis. A satisfying and continuously growing emotional bond is the foundation of a successful relationship.
Relationship to Self Group:
Embark on a process of self-discovery and spiritual formation with others. Sometimes we find ourselves as we enter into other people's stories. This group will provide a space for people to deconstruct the parts of their identity and spiritual experience that have harmed them or simply no longer seem to be working. The group will then provide a clean slate for individuals to reconstruct an identity and spiritual expression more aligned with the reality of their experience.
Rates and Insurance
Success in therapy depends on the quality of the counseling relationship and it's important to find someone you feel a genuine ability to connect to and feel comfortable with. I offer a free 20 minute consultation for you to discuss any questions or concerns you have about the process and to see if we might work well together.
Individual Sessions
$150 per 50 minute session
$200 per 90 minute session
In Person and Virtual appointments available
Couples Therapy
$150 per 50 minute session
$200 per 90 minute session
In Person and Virtual appointments available
Group Sessions
$45 per 90 minute session
10 week commitment required.
Groups are currently being suspended as a result of the pandemic.
Insurance
I accept BlueCross/BlueShield, United Healthcare and Optum. If you have an insurance plan not listed, it may be possible for you to file an out-of-network service reimbursement. I can provide you a receipt with a CPT and DSM-V diagnosis code. Your health insurance and employee benefit plan may offer coverage for this service, so contacting your insurance provider will be most helpful
If the cost seems prohibitive, I offer reduced fee services on a limited basis. Please contact me to discuss your options.
Contact Me
Location
North Austin
12335 Hymeadow Drive, Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78750