Born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I grew up playing sports, going to sporting events with my dad, surfing at the shore, and exploring the city. Even though my idea of wilderness at that time was Fairmount Park, I always loved being outside. As a kid, I would join my neighbors every day and play basketball, wiffleball or football for hours on end no matter the season. Anything to be outside and active.

I received my B.S. in Secondary Education from Penn State University. After completing stints teaching social studies in Jönköping, Sweden, and the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, I started feeling the draw of the outdoors again. For the next year or so I traveled to national parks all over the country and then all through Australia and Asia. It was during this time that I learned how to pitch a tent, start a fire, and several other skills that had never seemed pertinent living in the city. It became clear to me that my career path should combine my two passions of being outdoors and helping youth grow and develop.

In 2019 I started my career in wilderness therapy as a field staff for blueFire and immediately started to recognize how special our field area in Idaho is. Witnessing how clients grow in ways that seemed impossible to me while teaching in a classroom was amazing. After working for a year in the field, I received a Master’s in Social Work from Boise State University,  and subsequently my LCSW after years of learning here at blueFire. Coming right back to blueFire to join the clinical team has been a dream come true.

As a therapist, I believe that a combination of cognitive interventions such as IFS and DBT and somatic-based interventions like EMDR and mindfulness regulation skills in conjunction with an outdoor setting can lead to transformative results for clients. I am passionate about empowering clients to leave blueFire with the knowledge that they can overcome challenges and master new skills. By overcoming the challenges inherent in a wilderness setting our clients learn, self-efficacy, executive functioning skills, confidence, interpersonal ability, and a sense of achievement.

When I’m not at work you can find me climbing at City of Rocks, anxiously pacing around my house during Philadelphia sporting events, playing fetch with my two huskies, or playing any sport I possibly can, and of course spending time with my beautiful wife and son.