About Em
As a mental health therapist with more than 16 years of experience observing a broken approach to mental, emotional and physical well-being, I aim to challenge how we think about and respond to adversity.
I completed my master’s degree in social work from the University of Utah in 2007, seeking out independent study in mind-body medicine and emphasizing whole wellness and self-determination early in my work.
I am passionate about the impact of systemic change and social justice, and obtained a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix in 2011.
Recognizing that trauma work is whole-body work, I became a 200-hour Certified Meditation Teacher through Dharana Method in 2017 and completed LifePower Yoga Teacher Training that same year.
I offer therapy and coaching specializing in post-traumatic meaning and growth and incorporate meditation, mindfulness and movement into sessions, retreats, and workshops, which you can find on the events calendar.
I aim to push outside the imagined boundaries of the healthcare industry to bring together a philosophy combining the best of Eastern and Western methods and tangible, science-based resilience practices.
I distilled that research into six core dimensions of resilience where we can quickly triage both risk factors and protective resources to feel more secure in our lives, even and especially in the midst of crisis.
Having witnessed firsthand the transformation of my practice through these concepts, I developed The Resilience Centered Certification Course for frontline health professionals. Offered both live and online, this program combines the Hierarchy of Resilience framework within a person-centered approach to our work that empowers clients to self-determine through their own inherent wisdom and ability to heal.
In early 2020, I facilitated an intensive course based in the Hierarchy of Resilience through the University of Utah’s Lifelong Learning Program, followed by an online course targeting first responders in the midst of COVID through BluNovus. I translated those programs into The Resilience Class, an online course accessible anywhere, with lifetime access.
As part of Governor Herbert’s Utah Resilience Month initiative in May 2020, I released free resilience toolkits to support families as our community grappled with the impact of the global pandemic and quarantine. Anyone can download the Family Resilience Kit at no cost.
Whether I am working with you one-on-one, leading a group through a Resiliency Field Trip, or sharing actionable information on a podcast, I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity to witness our innate ability to rise up in the midst of seemingly insurmountable challenges to make a change.
“In the stretching, painful as it is sometimes, we expand, we grow, we change ourselves, we change the world.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
Only you can be the hero of your story.
Only you can be the hero of your story.Resilience is the key to everything we hope for in life, liberating happiness from happy conditions.
Adversity creates an opportunity to see yourself and your reality from a new perspective, grow stronger through it, and prioritize what matters most.
Here, you will find resources and reflections as well as live and online events, courses and classes to support your own journey.
The Resilience Class
More than five years of research resulted in the development of The Hierarchy of Resilience framework, a tangible model for understanding, triaging and optimizing our personal stress resilience across six domains.
I teach this framework live through public workshops, the University of Utah Lifelong Learning Program, and at private corporate trainings, but you can start today inside the online program.
The Resilience Centered Course
Helping professionals are at the frontline of trauma. Not only are they critical to the well-being of our communities, the nature of the work can result in compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious trauma.
That’s why I created The Resilience Centered Course, to support practitioners in establishing a robust personal resilience practice while simultaneously integrating a trauma-informed resilience approach to their work with clients.
The Type 1 Project
The ACES research that illuminated the enormous lifelong health implications of adverse childhood experiences sits within an enormous body of evidence that our bodies manifest stress somatically. My own trauma led to the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes.
Holistic mind-body care should be the standard in how we train our healthcare professionals, but Western approaches to health are far behind. It’s up to us to understand, trust and take responsibility for our whole bodies, such that we can advocate for the care we need to experience robust wellness.