I grew up in California, where mental illness wasn't something I learned about from a textbook — it was just part of life from an early age. Growing up, I was surrounded by all kinds of people living all kinds of lives — and I learned early that different wasn't something to fix.

I spent a long time in school figuring out how I wanted to help people (I've got the student loan debt and a shiny doctorate degree to prove it). I started out as a nurse, but made the leap to psychology when I realized the part of the work I loved most was the real, ongoing relationships I got to build with my clients. Turns out, that's where all the good stuff happens.

All those years of schooling left me with a genuine love of research. I'm always digging into what the evidence actually says, even when it means admitting how much we still don't know. But no study tells you what it's like to actually be a person — and that's what I'm most interested in.

My work with neurodivergent clients is largely informed by my own lived experience as an ADHDer. I also live in a small fat body, which means fatphobia and body image struggles aren't abstract concepts to me — they're personal.

The lens through which I see the world is also shaped by the privileges I was born into: cishet, white, non-indigenous, American citizen, college-educated, solidly middle class, and able-bodied. I don't take that lightly. That's why I actively seek out the wisdom of people with lived experience I don't have — because research alone will never be the whole picture.

• you've come to appreciate a good ADHD tangent

• you have strong feelings about plants, animals, or a good craft project

• you've ever felt judged in therapy — or just never quite found your people

• you suspect your brain might work a little differently and want to dig into that

• a barefoot therapist with colorful hair doesn't scare you off

• you want someone who will be real with you, not just nice to you