After graduating with my master’s degree and being
accepted into the counseling doctoral program in 2000, I was fortunate to get hired part-time as a Program Therapist at a day treatment facility for children and adolescents with behavioral and/or emotional difficulties. This provided me with invaluable experience and the opportunity to learn from and meet many professionals in and around the Memphis area. In addition, the facility began to see an increasing number of clients with diagnoses along the Autism Spectrum.
As a result, I began supplementing my formal education by attending numerous conferences and workshops around the country related to working with this fast-growing population. Upon completion of my doctoral degree, I continued working at this facility and also began doing some private practice work, primarily working with children and adolescents diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), High-Functioning Autism, or Asperger’s Syndrome.
As a result of my growing interest in Autism Spectrum Disorders and the genuine enjoyment I had when working with them, I chose to go into private practice and specialize in individuals with social-cognitive deficits (my clients have a variety of
diagnoses and some have no formal diagnosis, yet struggle socially).
Social Therapy opened in August 2007 and I am fortunate in that the business grew quickly and has been very successful. However, my philosophy is “QUALITY OVER QUANTITY”. Therefore, the number of clients admitted into groups (along
with the number of therapists) is very important. While Social Therapy has many clients attending groups each week, I still feel that the practice is small enough to be able to give each of the clients the individual attention they deserve, with
communication with parents being a top priority.
Finally, I am the mother of 2 boys (Brady, age 19 and Parker, age 16) I LOVE MY BOYS!! I have great family and friends that are very important to me and I try to spend time with (in between running my boys around to their sports). I also enjoy running, continued self-development, and spending time with friends!
Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, I received my undergraduate degree in psychology from Mississippi State University and moved to Memphis to attend graduate school at The University of Memphis, where I received both my master’s and doctorate degrees in the field of counseling.
While working on my master’s degree, I began doing in-home ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy with children along the autism spectrum, trained by a
consultant from the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (C.A.R.D.), located in Los Angeles, California.