What I’m Playing, Watching, and Reading

Sometimes folks ask me what types of games I like, what I’ve been watching, or what I’ve been reading. I like a wide variety of genres. Here is a sampling of where I’ve recently been, with a few favorites mixed in:

  • Playing: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dead Cells, Hades, Trials of Fire, Dragon Age series, Minecraft, Gloomhaven, Baba Is You, Valheim, 7 Days to Die, Dead by Daylight, Race for the Galaxy mobile
  • Reading (personal): Monstress, Lumberjanes
  • Reading (professional): Parenting from the Inside Out, Polysecure, How to Stay Human in a F*cked Up World, When Things Fall Apart
  • Watching: The Dragon Prince, Arcane, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Delicious in Dungeon, BoJack Horseman, Black Mirror, Severance, Sex Education, Ted Lasso, The Expanse, Steven Universe, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal series, Avatar: The Last Airbender series, Dr. Who, Star Wars

Education and Training

In 2013, I graduated from Seattle University’s Masters of Arts in Psychology with a focus in Existential-Phenomenology. Existential-Phenomenological psychology tends to stray from any reductionistic practices and instead celebrates and respects the diversity of the human experience. It focuses on the individual’s lived experience, the meanings we make of our experiences, and how this impacts our perceptions of ourselves and our relationships. It is also focused on the responsibility we have to ourselves & others and is social justice oriented.

I have 7 years of post-graduate, intensive Gestalt training experience focused on working with individuals, couples, and supervising other therapists via Gestalt Associates Training Los Angeles (GATLA). 

One of the things I love about Gestalt work is that it takes everyone on their own terms. There is no preconceived notion of how you “should” be. Instead, Gestalt is an active practice of seeking clarity on how you actually are. By attuning to your own experience in the present moment, Gestalt aims to build awareness around the process of what you are doing and how you are doing it. This focus allows us the flexibility to experiment in session with new ways of responding and discovering what changes. Once we have more awareness of ourselves and how we actually are, this opens the door to change, choice, and a greater sense of agency.

  • More information on how I utilize Gestalt with adult individuals: click here.
  • More information on how I utilize Gestalt with couples work: click here.

I am also internationally trained in Gestalt work. This gives me a wider perspective and flexibility in effectively utilizing Gestalt practice. These international trainings have also highlighted for me how our culture impacts what we allow ourselves to be, to feel, and to express. 

Additionally, I am level 2 trained from The Gottman Institute for working with couples. I find that The Gottman Method, at its heart, seamlessly overlaps with Gestalt couples work. This method is focused on research backed interventions that help heal relational struggles, build connection and intimacy, improve communication, and help couples learn more about their partners.

In the Media

Presentations

  • 2022, GATLA – Benefits & Therapeutic Use of Video Games and the Assessment & Treatment for Video Game Addiction
  • 2018, Whidbey Island Comic Con – Importance of Representation in Media
  • 2017, Geek Girl Con – Sexuality & Representation in Comics
  • 2017, PAX – Surviving Conflict & Building Community Online
  • 2017, Emerald City Comic Con – Sexuality & Representation in Comics
  • 2016, Geek Girl Con – Sexuality & Representation in Comics
  • 2016, PAX – Surviving Conflict & Building Community Online
  • 2015, Geek Girl Con – Importance of Representation
  • 2015, PAX – Examining Identity & Combating Bullying in Gaming
  • 2014, PAX – Examining and Combating Harassment & Misogyny in Gaming
  • 2014, Scarecrow Video – Psychology of Horror

  • Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. –Helen Keller