Co-founder, vice president, therapist, and supervisor at Starline Therapy.

Licensed Marriage and Family TherapistChild/Adolescent and Family Services team memberCognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Trauma Focused - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) trainedProgram Administrator for the Making Smart Choices Program for the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Masters program.

I provided intensive in-home therapy for children and adolescents with severe emotional and/or behavioral issues and their families. In addition to providing individual and family therapy, I provided crisis intervention, case management, and experiential therapy. I also made internal and external referrals, provided psychoeducation, and collaborated with other service providers to ensure that our clients received the best possible care. In-home services are intensive, requiring a minimum of three hours participation and a maximum of 10 hours participation each week. Furthermore, I regularly attended professional development trainings, participated in weekly supervision with a licensed supervisor, and coordinated treatment team meetings with other service providers to discuss client progress.

As an intern for the Child and Anxiety Clinic at The Family Institute I received training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as it applies to anxiety disorders, utilized Cognitive Behavioral interventions with clients, such as thought records and Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and received additional weekly supervision.

While at The Family Institute, I was a co-facilitator for an adolescent adoption group. I worked with a staff therapist to co-lead group therapy for adolescent girls with adoption issues. Through this experience I learned how to manage a process group, and I received additional supervision from my staff co-facilitator regarding self-of-the-therapist issues as they arose.

Through the Making Smart Choices program, I provided manualized therapy for high school students who had been suspended due to behavioral issues at school. Through the program, I taught conflict resolution, emotion regulation, and effective communication skills to students and their guardians, and cultivated a safe environment where the participants could role play and practice their newly acquired skills.

Through the Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy program at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, I participated in an internship providing therapy to clients and their families. As part of my clinical experience, I provided 500 hours of therapy to a caseload of 10 – 15 clients while receiving 3 hours of group supervision and 1 hour of individual supervision per week. I treated various presenting problems, including depression, anxiety, life-stage transitions, couples conflict, infidelity, trauma and abuse, parent coaching, and grief and loss. I utilized various family systems theories from family therapy models to develop assessments and treatment plans for families, couples, children, and adults from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

I taught 4th Grade Reading, Writing, and Social Studies to students in a low socioeconomic area of the Mississippi Delta. I used authentic-reading strategies to build students’ reading levels and writing skills, and differentiated strategies to help move high performing and low performing students. I worked closely with families to provide students with the best possible education.As a second year teacher I also directed the school Christmas pageant and coached Little League Softball for 4th and 5th grade girls from the school. I also met with the school leadership team for four hours a month to discuss next steps and strategies to implement to increase the school's MCT2 scores. I problem solved with the principal and other members on how to eliminate student behavior problems in the school, and went on observations to successful schools in the district and reported back to the principal with ideas that we could speedily apply in our school. Also as a second year teacher I acted as a mentor for the new 3rd grade ELA teacher, and was responsible for collecting weekly newsletters from the upper elementary teachers in the school for the district. Furthermore, I led a professional development course for 1st and 2nd year Corps Members on The Daily 5 Literacy Program for the Teach For America Professional Saturday program. I taught Corps Members how to teach their upper and lower elementary students to become independent readers and writers. Finally, I compiled resources to make my cohort more efficient and effective literacy teachers.

During the 5 week intensive training program, corps members stay at Delta State University and teach in one of Teach For America's partner districts in Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Sunflower, or Washington Counties. During this time they write daily objective driven lesson plans, teach summer school classes, and engage in a large scale of professional development activities, including seminars, discussion groups, workshops, and individual and group reflections. They work under the direct supervision of veteran teachers from those respective schools and experienced Teach for America staff members. Corps members receive feedback and improve on a daily basis.

Through The Fund For American Studies Institute of Business and Government Affairs at Georgetown University, I participated in a 6 week marketing and government affairs internship with SGMA. While at SGMA I edited and produced marketing research reports, created verbiage and signature blocks that were included in staffers messages, assisted logistically in post communication with sponsors and congressmen from the Congressional Baseball game, and I created promotional pieces for research.

As the head coach of the Blue Angels Competitive Travel Team I had full program responsibility as team manager, head coach, and program administrator. I coached and taught experienced high school players in all aspects of the game: rules and regulations, techniques of the sport, good sportsmanship, and interpersonal as well as leadership skills. I successfully managed all registration and first-aid functions, and I organized and directed individual and small group practice activities/exercises.

As an independent softball instructor I built and maintained my own business and private client base for teaching and training private fast pitch softball skills, techniques, fitness, and training. I successfully developed and maintained client relationships with parents and athletes. Finally, I successfully taught and trained clients' skills, teamwork, sportsmanship, and cultivated solid interpersonal and leadership skills.