How long have you been at DCCH, what is your position, and what transitions have you had here (if any)?

I started four years ago on January 3, 2018. My job is an outpatient therapist in The Therapy Center at DCCH. I think that the biggest transitions I have had coming here have been the hours I work and the length of day. I am generally a morning person, but being in outpatient therapy, most people don’t want to get up early and talk about some of their stresses and struggles early in the morning, which leads me to having hours up till 8 PM three nights a week. I have gotten used to it over the years, but especially in the winter months, it is not uncommon to get here as the sun is rising and leaving after it sets.

What’s something people don’t know about you?

I think many people would be surprised a bunch of things. First, I went to undergraduate to be a band director. Then after about 3 weeks of classes, I realized that I didn’t like music as much as I thought I did. I enjoyed Music Theory a lot, but of all of my classmates, I was the only one who liked that part of it all.

Then I thought about being a missionary for a while and have been to Mexico over 10 times on various mission trips, and spent 3 months in Chile for a summer (winter there), and have been to Ecuador and Venezuela (right before things got bad there) for a few weeks. I was a youth minister for a few years as well. These experiences helped me settle into becoming a counselor because I am able to take what I have learned about myself and people and can (hopefully) help others overcome some of their struggles to become the best version of themselves.

Tell us about family – what’s that look like?

I have been married to my wife for almost three years and I have a 17-year-old daughter.

What do you love the most about working here?

I love my co-workers that I see on a regular basis here in the outpatient therapy office. Everyone is kind and supportive of each other. There are many others that work here that I do not run into often, but in my experience, they are kind and supportive as well.

What is your biggest challenge in this job?

I think that the biggest challenge for me is probably common to many counselors, which is that we can only do so much to help people and then they have to take what they get from us and grow on their own.