So you’d like to know a bit more of who I am. That’s fair. If you’re going to invest this much in healing, you should know at least a little bit of who you’re entrusting yourself to.

Not to start too far back, but I was the little girl who wanted to be a mom when she grew up. Early on in school I was quickly told my dreams had to expand beyond this or I’d be wasting my brain. So I spent the next 20 years very anxious about what that meant, and fully sure I would fail my life if I didn’t figure this out in time. If you’re imagining I was in a dark place in my mind quite a lot, you’d be very accurate.

And you’d better believe I achieved as much as I could to appear successful, but spoiler alert, I did not figure it out “in time.” I nearly dropped out of college because I had no intention of teaching like my diploma would imply. I spent a couple of years after that floundering in myriad ways, further demonstrating to myself I was destined to a be a failure.

And yet, it was in the floundering and the “failing” that I began to recognize what I was meant to do. Other pieces started falling into place, like the dream of becoming a wife and a mom, and after over a decade out of the classroom, I returned for my masters in counseling.

Nothing about my life has been smooth or easy. I tend to make things harder than they are. I don’t know if I will ever find my way out of that. But I am made to grow and heal. And so are you.

And if you’re more of a visual person, please enjoy meeting some of the parts of me in picture format:

A major theme in my story and within my system of parts, is that of my upbringing and devotion to the conservative, Christian church for the first 38 years of my life.