I grew up in Kenosha and, aside from a brief stay in Texas and holidays / summers in the Tennessee and Arkansas, I have lived here for over three decades. I believe in and am invested in my community as it is where I am raising my own son and stepdaughter. A graduate of Tremper High School, I have a Masters of Science In Education with a focus in Counseling Psychology with a broad background in clinical-counseling psychology. I have been guided to behavioral health treatment as I believe in working where the need is. My BS was completed, Cum Laude, at Carthage College in Kenosha, and my Masters at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with much of my coursework coming from the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology. I have received honors including The Hawkinson Foundation Scholarship (2016), Nurses Foundation of Racine / SC Johnson Scholarship, Who's Who Among Universities (2010), 20 Under 40 (2017) and repeat Deans List placements.
Within my eclectic career, I have worked for over four-and-a-half years as a 911 dispatcher and trainer where I served as the Union President for two years (no stance on unions) and been a case manager with the Kenosha Community Health Center and Kenosha Human Development Services for over four years now. My specialization has been in major mental illness and chronic physical illness, where I have worked integrated healthcare for a large portion of my years as a case manager. I have also had the honor of advising on multiple projects including corrections-to-community exit planning, psychiatric provider recruitment and case management program design. In all of my years as a case manager, I have been nearly exclusive to the Medicaid and Medicare population and people who fall below 150% Federal Poverty Level. That means I am overeducated, underpaid, and have seen some stuff.
In my very rare down time, my interests are in reading about criminology, public policy with a huge interest in game theory, and film. I play chess, study home library architecture, am a huge horror movie nerd and attend a convention each year where I have developed a list of films every avid horror fan must see during their life. Aside from this essay, I prefer to type on manual typewriters (1939 Royal KMM, 1950 Olivetti Lettera 22, and 1944 Underwood Noiseless Portable if you must know). I have a deep, personal history with mental illness and suicide, trauma, mental illness and am both partially blind in my right eye and affected by several physical diagnoses, giving me what I believe is a strong sense of empathy and interest in the overlap between physical conditions and mental health.
At the age of 8, I saw an episode of MASH (which my father still watches in his recliner), where a character named Dr. Sydney Friedman appeared and counseled a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder. When my father told me that man was a shrink�, I knew that was a career I would want. One day, when I grow up, I still want to be a shrink, riding my Vespa through town to the sites where folks who need it the most, making house calls to shelters and addiction stops as well as the office, going home to a dog, a fireplace, and my children.

Essay: Mindfulness Meditation

One of the most profoundly universal and healing therapeutic techniques that can be practiced by anyone, adult or child, of nearly any background and level of health is mindfulness meditation. In many ways it transcends physiological therapy and mental health support. For the average practitioner, it can become a deeply personal and long-term practice that yields scientifically validated results for the short-term and long-term.
Despite humble beginnings of Buddhism and spiritual practitioners, it has gone on to become studied and scientifically bolstered by some of the best academic institutions in the world. It is practiced regularly with combat-hardened veterans from the Veterans Administration in the United States. Even though it is an exercise of the mind, its effects on the body and sometimes spirituality as added positive results. Because of the innate nature of the practice of mindfulness to be a tool for those who struggle to remain in the moment and the practice to be free of any ties to any religious practices, it appeals to those who would otherwise scoff off many practices from outside their spiritualities or traditional medicine. Practical applications range from the acceptance of what is to therapy, attention improvement, pain reduction, stress reduction and relaxation, introspection, and even protective factors with dementia among others.
What mindfulness is has generally been a practice of bringing the attention to the present moment. That includes bringing attention to the experiences of the mind and body. Mindfulness incorporates and builds upon attention, breathing technique, posture to what extent the practitioner is able to attempt, and emotional stability. It involves meditating with the eyes closed, legs crossed and back straight (again, to what extent the practitioner is able). From there, the focus remains sustained on breathing and the awareness of breath going in and out through the nostrils and on the rise and contraction of the abdomen. Variations exist which allow for the practitioner from any ability to meditate. It requires very little time at a minimum of several minutes once per day to many times each day of the week. There is no judgment, a promotion of acceptance, and a litany of instructional materials in existence such as the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn and books such as Zen Mind, Beginners Mind that can be found at nearly any library.
The mind is tied to the body. Because of that interconnectedness, disabilities are often reciprocal and build upon each other to a point where physiological states play off of physical pain or mental energy. Because of the nature of rumination to take over and disabilities to limit other positive aspects of life, the mind can become a prison and add to the somatic experiences someone with a disability endures. Experiences that have led to trauma and stress disorders, conditions including anxiety, depression, attention deficits, cognitive limitations, and grief among many others are prime contributors to suffering in life and a prime target for the benefits of mindfulness meditation. However, going back to the interconnectedness of mind and body, the conditions mindfulness works wonders on very much include conditions of the body.