About Me

Welcome! You can call me Sami or Samantha (she/her). I’m a mental health counselor who practices in-person in Portland, Oregon, and via telehealth throughout the state of Oregon. I specialize in trauma and chronic illness/disability. You can learn more about what I work with here.

I’m feminist, antiracist, and anti-ableist, as well as LGBTQ+ allied and size-friendly. I do my own work to challenge my biases to best support my clients. I am by no means perfect, but always striving, and always open to feedback.

Education & training

I have a Master of Science (MS) in Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling from Portland State University, a dual track program in clinical mental health counseling and rehabilitation counseling. I’m fully trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and am currently working toward certification. I also have training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). As you might be able to tell from my list of trainings, I’m a bit of a therapy nerd.

Credentials

I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Oregon. My license number is C7117. Nationally, I’m a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), which means I have specific education, training, and experience in working with people with disabilities and chronic illness. I’m also as a National Certified Counselor (NCC), which means I’m a board-certified clinician through the National Board for Certified Counselors.

Past experience

Prior to opening my private practice, I completed my practicum at a community counseling clinic in 2017-2018 and my internship at a federal re-entry center for people reentering the community after prison in 2018-2019. In my past life, I was a writer and marketer, primarily in the design and construction industry, for almost 5 years. I decided to become a therapist after a transformative experience in therapy in my mid-20s. I love my job and consider it such an honor to be trusted with my clients’ suffering and their triumphs.