Growing up in Southern California wasn’t always easy. I was born and raised in the Greater Los Angeles area in a Single Parent family home. My mom was a hard working young single mother who did everything she could to provide for my younger sister and I. As a family, we endured a lot of financial hardships and we lived in many economically impoverished areas such as Watts and East LA. I can remember at an early age watching my mother not only having to deal with feelings of poor self worth in a society that condemned broken marriages, but having to garner her inner-strength to battle her way through the California State Welfare system just to meet our basic needs with food stamps and low income housing.

Although we didn’t have much, my sister and I are very fortunate to always have had a mother who provided us with an abundance of love and nurturing. She also continually reminded us that the only way we were going to have success in life was through education. She was right. In 1987, when I was 15 years old, I watched my mother walk across the graduate stage earning her RN degree when she was 32 years old. This very much inspired me and I went on to earn a double bachelors degree in Sociology and Criminology from California State University Northridge in 1995.

When I was younger I had no idea how much my life experiences would impact my career choice. So, in my early twenties I was drawn to working with ‘At Risk’ youth in probation type settings. Being young and idealistic, I was out to ‘save the world’. But, after experiencing a few physical assaults and a million and six curse words later, I was quickly humbled. I spent the next 8 years working as a counselor with adolescents with mental health disorders in the Los Angeles and Seattle area. Subsequently, I spent the next few years working at Fairfax Psychiatric hospital in Kirkland WA, as a counselor with mentally ill adolescents and adults.

In 2003, I earned my Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Washington, specializing in mental health and health care. During graduate school I served two clinical internships at Providence Hospital in Everett and the Seattle VA where I had the opportunity to develop an interest in working with clients with many different physical and mental illnesses and assisting them and their families in navigating a complex health care system and providing them with mental health services.

I was fortunate enough to obtain a full time position at Evergreen hospital after graduating and gained 5 years of clinical experience there working in a multitude of specialty areas including Oncology, Cardiology, Critical Care, Orthopedics, and Surgical. I also developed a strong relationship with the University of Washington as I served as a Practicum instructor for over 15 MSW students in during a four-year period as well as the clinical liaison for UW MSW students at Evergreen Hospital. In 2004 I took a per diem position in the University of Washington Medical Center Emergency Department where I really was able to sharpen my psychiatric evaluation skills. In 2008, I went ‘home’ so to speak where I could focus on one of my loves as an Oncology Social worker at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.
I have been in private practice since 2008 and have been so excited to watch it grow and am so thrilled to be doing this full time now and spending more time with my wonderful family and baby boy Lennox.

The best thing about graduate school was summer because it was in this summer of 2002 that I was introduced by one of my good friends to my future wife.

My wife Jessica and I have been married for over five years now, and I can’t say enough about her. But I do know that she is my best friend and she inspires me. She has those same nurturing and loving qualities that I feel that everyone is entitled to, irrespective of their position or status in life. She has been my tireless support when it comes to pursuing my passion which is serving as a guide to help people to become their best selves and reach their unique full potential through the forum of counseling and consulting.

P.S. Our other two children wouldn’t be very happy if I left them out of this Bio— Petey and Ellie are the two most friendly and loving Pitbulls you will ever meet!