Meet Carolyn.
Even after nearly 25 years as a therapist, describing what our work will look like isn’t simple. The most meaningful therapeutic work doesn’t follow a script and will be different for each person. Your history, insights, and presence shape the work we do. Together, we co-create an experience that is unique and deeply personal.
My journey began as a resident advisor at Syracuse University, while I majored in social work. As an RA in a college dorm, I was the one people turned to in those late-night, uncertain moments – when the homesickness hit, when family dynamics shifted, when the future felt impossible to map. I found myself supporting not only students, but also parents who were often caught between concern for their kids and their own fears about aging, identity, and change.
This was just the start of my life’s work guiding people through messy, uncertain, and deeply human experiences.
After earning my Master’s in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago, I began my career working with children and teens in residential care, juvenile detention, and therapeutic schools – young people shaped by trauma and systems they didn’t choose. I gave them the support they needed to build resilience, cope with their circumstances, and carve out a path for their future.
Later, I worked with older adults facing the complex intersections of mental illness, chronic health issues, and end-of-life care. I wasn’t just supporting from the sidelines; I worked inside nursing homes and assisted living communities, alongside residents and their families as they navigated the heartbreaking realities of placement, loss of independence, and institutional care. I saw firsthand how painful these decisions are, and how isolating the experience can feel.
I’ve also provided counseling and support to veterinarians, animal welfware workers, and pet owners facing difficult decisions around care and grief. Working inside an animal hospital, I witnessed the emotional chaos of emergency visits, the heartbreak of euthanasia, and the pressure veterinarians face navigating cost, compassion, and client expectations.
Now, in private practice, my patients are often people holding things together for everyone else. They’re competent, reliable, and stretched too thin. Sometimes they’re so used to managing it all that they don’t even realize how lonely or burnt out they’ve become.
What I’ve found was that no matter someone’s background, people need space to feel what they feel, and someone to sit with them through it and help it all make sense.
I walk together with people facing loss, grief, and the realities of saying goodbye. I help empty nesters and retirees redefine their identity. I support the caregivers, the quiet strugglers, the ones who feel like they’re losing themselves while holding everyone else together.