My Story

Before I was a speaker, I was an educator.
Before I was an educator, I was a clinician.
Before I was a clinician, I was a client. 

I've always been fascinated by understanding how humans actually work. At one point in my life, that question wasn't academic. It was personal.

Like millions of people, I experienced PTSD.

Long before I taught neuroscience, trauma treatment, or leadership, I was trying to understand my own nervous system. I spent years searching for answers that explained why I felt the way I did and eventually discovered that healing wasn't about becoming a different person. It was about understanding what my brain and body needed to integrate, recover, and thrive.

That experience didn't just change my life.

It changed the work I would dedicate my career to.

That Experience Became the Foundation of a Career

Today I'm a licensed clinical social worker, international speaker, author, and founder of The Trauma Therapist Institute©, where we've trained thousands of therapists around the world

For more than twenty years I've worked at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, trauma treatment, and human behavior. Whether I'm speaking to therapists, healthcare organizations, educators, or executive leadership teams, my goal is the same:

To make complex neuroscience practical enough that people can use it to change how they lead, heal, and live.

My work has taken me from therapy rooms to international conferences, graduate classrooms to executive boardrooms, and from writing books to advising organizations. Across every setting, one belief has remained constant:

When we understand how humans actually work, we make better decisions for ourselves, our relationships, our organizations, and our communities.