How I got here...

 

Largely life circumstances, with a healthy dose of relevant genetics mixed in = when something is important to me, I am totally obsessed with insuring that it is done “really well and really right," otherwise "just don't do it," and that would be perfectly fine too.

 

In the spirit of complete truthfulness, this relentless/all-or-nothing personality trait of mine has been problematic or off-putting in some circumstances and environments… but when it comes working through a vision for health and wellness services that reflect what I know all of us human beings need and deserve to be healthy, happy, and successful individuals….well, in that particular circumstance, I believe my relentlessness is my greatest strength.

 

We are all here in this life to contribute something unique. We leave the earth changed from what it was prior to our arrival. As far back as I can recall, I wanted to do something in my lifetime that mattered. I wasn't sure what that would be exactly, but I knew that I wanted to feel that I was born for a purpose.

 

I started off as a writer. I got a writing scholarship in high-school, then went off to college with the intention of learning to be a better writer, and finding out what I was meant to write about. Then along the way, I bumped into psychology, we fell head over heels in love, and the trajectory shifted. Once graduate school ended, and I was now a therapist, not a writer, my heart always remained open and curious to someday find out how psychology and my writing would eventually meld and take form.

 

The beginning of my career was spent in direct practice within the most intensive demanding clinical environments.

As has always been my style, I rode the wave and sat back in observation and wonderment as to where where my career would bring me next.

 

Speaking of what happened next, as is often is the case in life and because it's so hard to see our own selves accurately, often our predictions of what we are going to do end up so far off base in retrospect. We must rely on the mirrors of others around us to reveal to us who we really are. I was deeply attached to being a therapist and was confused and ambivalent when mentors pushed me into leadership roles. I had absolutely zero interest in being a boss, and zero interest in ceasing to work directly with patients.

 

Over time and circumstance, it became apparent to me that not wanting to be a leader was less about lack of desire, and more about lack of self belief. But the mirrors around me helped install a new sense of belief in me, and I try to pay forward in my present day wherever I see the opportunity: believing in other people till they believe in themselves is one of the most powerful gifts you can ever give someone. With much support from others, I put in the years of hard work to learn about what good leadership involved. I learned the ropes, developed my passions, and eventually grew into administration on the clinical and business side, teaching, program development, and consulting on workplace culture primarily in the healthcare industry.

 

No this really is NOT about me, so then why does this part of the story matter? Because it was within these leadership settings that I became completely preoccupied with the notion of what is broken in healthcare, which happens to replicate what I feel is broken in humanity. For a litany of reasons that go too deep to get into here, the systems constructed around the helping professions/education/health and human services, have evolved into a paradoxical maze of best laid plans for controlling clinical quality, with the unintended consequence of exhausting and traumatizing (and in many cases re-traumatizing) professionals in the helping professions. This results in instantaneous and profound negative influence on our most important commodity, our customers... you know, the customers... the reason we all come to work every day-- yeah those guys.

We have created highly regulated, fearful, and homogonous approaches to managing organizational systems. And analogous to a family system, if the parents come home from work stressed, disrespected, unfulfilled and feeling threatened, their children will pay that price, and so the cycle continues. It is not until a organization embraces the notion that patients/clients/consumers are only as healthy as the people who take care of them. So even if the workplace goals and expectations are theoretically "appropriate" re clinical quality and fiscal goals, we must acknowledge the glaring truth that a stressed overworked, defensive, and emotionally unsafe organizational climate will be obstructionist to organizational goals, yet even more concerningly, it will impede positive health outcomes for our clientele. I became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned in watching these cycles repeat over the course of my career, within many different scenarios and environments, yet with the same themes threaded throughout. My impatience with the redundancy of it all, and an ever-nagging feeling of defeat at what we had been charged to do- to bring health and healing to the hurt and the sick... ultimately cultivated in me a passion for systemic reform, and innovative program development in niche populations.

 

I possess expertise and an affinity for psychiatric diagnostics, especially the assessment and treatment of ADHD; and additionally Complex Trauma. I consider addictions/disordered eating/body dysphoria, co-dependency, and infidelity to be subspecialties for me, due to their frequent intersection and overlap within the realms of both Trauma and Attention Disorders.

 

As it relates to my interests and abilities, my classroom and workplace experience is relevant, yet secondary...

 

For I know that my primary driving force is the adversity I have sustained in my personal life. Adversity is what compels me to work on myself each and every day. This matters because our level of effectiveness in reaching others is directly reflective of our level of willingness and capacity to know and help ourselves.

 

Putting personal effectiveness aside, the personal reward for relentlessly working on myself, is the attainment of a deeper connection and attachment to my loved ones, to my clients, to my employees, to my creativity and artistic ability, and above all, to humanity as a whole. I continue to learn and grow alongside those around me...

I watch and listen for the lessons from every formal and informal teacher who is placed in my path.

I know that the same resilience that enabled me to transcend my historical pain and suffering, is also the secret of my career success, and the source of my fulfilling and purpose-driven life.

 

I created Evo-Life as the incarnation of the drive inside of me to leave my mark. The Evo-Life brand, culture, and service offerings are the coalescence of every beautiful and painful lesson I have learned along the way about what people need and deserve, and how they can live a life that matters.

 

With deepest sincerity, I will share with you the one thing that I want you to know about me above all else...

I want you to know that it is my greatest honor, my most humbling privilege, and one of life’s most precious gifts to me that I may walk beside you through the twists and turns of your extraordinary life.