Kelly is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in trauma and PTS symptoms and has a passion for working with Active Duty Military, Veterans and First Responders. Unintentionally, she found herself in prior counseling positions surround by crisis and a high uptempo environment: Child Protective Services, Pregnancy Crisis Centers, and Hospital ER Intake. Before Warriors Heart, she was the Lead Triage Coordinator therapist in a Psychiatric ER for five years. It was a highly stressful job working closely with first responders and licensed professionals to oversee a safe and thorough intake process for anyone who came through the doors of the ER (voluntary, involuntary detention, handcuffs, and gurney). She is used to staying on her toes in an adrenaline rush environment, all the while trying to be a calming presence for the military and civilians during times of distress. She later began working with Active Duty in the hospital as a substance abuse clinician and quickly realized that although addressing the presenting problem of substance was needed, a deeper passion began to emerge. The drive to work on the combat military unit. Kelly began to discover the core issues of depression, anxiety, fear, and Post Traumatic Stress symptoms that were not being addressed and began to train as a trauma therapist. She is trained in the leading trauma modalities of Prolonged Exposure (PE), Eye Movement Rapid Desensitization (EMDR), and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). She also loves bringing energy during group therapy and enjoys leading military groups on combat trauma, military sexual trauma, PTSD symptoms, Complex Grief, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills, spiritual development, and substance education/process. Her treatment style is in line with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients discover and recognize root causes and core beliefs.

In addition to counseling, she has 13 years of marketing & communication experience for multiple nonprofit organizations and has business owner experience as a communications contractor. Kelly’s passions of communications and counseling have been two of her career goals over the last 20 years. She has 3 active children, who are the highlight of her life, and enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and running/long nature walks. A favorite self-care day would be a workout, time outside, an action movie, and pizza & chocolate.

My Why:

Kelly is a daughter of a Navy (Vietnam) Veteran & Division X Coast Guard Auxiliary current member, grandchild of US Army (WWII, Korea, Vietnam) and Army Air Corp (WWII) Veterans, niece of a US Marine (Vietnam) Veteran & US Navy (WWII) Veteran, and cousins to numerous service members. She grew up in a military family and understood the declaration of service. She had a natural attraction to want to give back to the military culture out of respect for her family values.

In 2016, Kelly found herself assessing the military, and began the intrigue to hear their struggles, share in the sorrow of their traumas and work closely with fighting their addictions. While being in the trenches of their traumas, she has also personally experienced through clients the sharp pain of military suicides, overdoses, and risky behaviors that led to accidental deaths. This spark to serve in this tribe has ignited a flame and intense passion to continue to focus on serving the military, first responders and their families to the best of her ability.