I live in the piney woods of Northeast Texas with my husband Jerry.  We moved from Del City, Oklahoma in 1994 to Jerry's hometown with our foster daughter.  Little did we know that we were to face many traumas and losses including surviving a nearly fatal boating accident.  Since our move we have lost many co-workers, friends, pets and family members including my mother-in-law and father-in- law.  Our (foster) daughter, whom we thought would be our forever child left at age 17 and we have not heard from her in over seven years.  I often wonder how life is going for her and how things would have been if I knew then what I know now.  Change, trauma and loss were not new experiences for me either but like most, I had safely tucked those feelings away in that bottom file cabinet drawer.  Little did I know the right triggers would soon come along and the trauma monster in the drawer would be unleashed.  The stresses of starting over, the struggles with my foster daughter and creating my dream of becoming a counselor were a few of those triggers.  I worked for a drop out prevention program as a Youth Services Coordinator, was a Mental Health Counselor for an MHMR, was a counselor/therapist in a group practice and now solo private practice. I have worked part-time as a forensic interviewer and contracted with a clinical service to provide counseling services for nursing home residents. My clients have been both male and female ranging in age from 2 years old to 104 years old.  I had the privilege of co-founding a program called Caring for Kids, a Prevention/Intervention Parenting Program through the North East Texas Child Advocacy Center in Winnsboro, Texas.  The program provides  a 10 week parent-education program, which I authored called  Practical Care Giving for Parents, as well as ongoing parent support groups and other programs to meet the needs of the multi-county areas that are served.   I wrote a novel about a woman's quest to integrate and heal multiple traumas entitled  Releasing Her Voice.  I have and continue to give presentations and workshops on Stress, Trauma, Attachement and Relationships. I have specialized in trauma and loss and have worked in the trenches with children and families in crisis for over 20 years.  Processing my own traumas has been extremely valuable allowing me to.

In my work I had noticed a growing number of children who would not respond positively to cognitive and behavioral techniques.  In some cases, as with our foster daughter the techniques only triggered worse behavior. Like myself I found parents, grandparents and other care givers feeling exhausted and overwhelmed because nothing seemed to work.  Behaviors would improve temporarily but then they came back with a vengeance.  One night, in desperation, I searched the web looking for something besides consequences and behavior modification.   I found Dr. Bryan Post's website and found an oasis in the desert.  Since then I have challenged myself personally and professionally with his message of love and regulation.  I found new discoveries within my bodymind system and am coming to a new understanding of how fears and terrors, born from birth trauma and early relationship traumas, kept me frozen and stuck in doing the same things expecting different results.  I am now opening to receive the love that has always been there for me beginning within myself.  I am challenging my negative conditioning and walking step by step into a more creative life. I feel so blessed by Bryan's support and his pioneering Stress Model.  Now I want to share this knowledge and light of hope.  I believe we need to incorporate the research from neuroscience and our intuitive hearts and apply this wisdom into the fields of counseling, psychology, and psychiatry as well as integrate this knowledge into the fabric of education, health and social services, medicine, politics, and the justice system.  We need to move from fear-based perception and reacting to love-based perception and responding.