I Understood a Great Deal - But I Still Felt Stuck
I earned a medical degree, built a successful career in behavioral-health operations, and became very good at appearing strong.
But understanding the mind and body intellectually had not taught me how to change the emotional and physical responses I was experiencing.
My search for that missing piece eventually led me to hypnotherapy—and shaped the way I work with people today.
I Learned How to Survive Before I Learned How to Feel Safe
I entered foster care as a child and became emancipated at 16.
Those experiences taught me how to adapt, push forward, and take care of myself. I learned how to remain productive when life felt uncertain and how to present strength even when I did not feel strong inside.
Those abilities carried me far. I earned my GED, continued my education, and eventually graduated from medical school with a Doctor of Medicine degree.
From the outside, my life appeared to be moving in the right direction. Internally, however, I often felt disconnected, unfulfilled, and unable to explain why achievement did not create the sense of safety or peace I expected it to.
I had learned how to survive and succeed. I had not yet learned how to understand the automatic emotional responses still operating beneath that success.
Medical Education Gave Me Knowledge.
Behavioral Health Showed Me the Person Behind the Problem.
After medical school, my career took me into behavioral-health operations.
As an early executive hire in a rapidly growing organization, I helped develop clinical and operational systems while overseeing services across multiple locations.
That experience gave me a close view of the challenges faced by clients, families, practitioners, and organizations. I saw the value of structured healthcare and the dedication of the professionals working within it. I also saw how time limitations, insurance requirements, and operational demands could make it difficult to give each person’s experience the attention it deserved.
I became increasingly drawn to one-on-one work that allowed more time to listen, understand the individual, and explore the pattern beneath the presenting concern.
But my professional experience was only part of what led me here.
I Could Explain My Patterns. That Didn’t Mean I Could Change Them.
I read, reflected, meditated, and tried to understand myself through everything I had learned.
I could identify parts of my history and explain why certain experiences might have affected me. Yet the emotional and physical responses continued.
I still felt the heaviness in my chest. The lump in my throat. The internal conflict between the person I appeared to be and what I felt underneath.
That difference became impossible to ignore:
Knowing why something happens is not always the same as being able to respond differently.
I had already spent years in traditional therapy, tried medication, and read countless self-help books. Yet I kept coming across the idea of the subconscious mind and wondering: If some of these responses are happening outside my conscious control, how do I actually access them?
That question led me to search online, where I eventually found a hypnotherapist.
At the time, I associated hypnosis mostly with what I had seen in movies and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. But I was curious enough to try it.
What Hypnotherapy Helped Me Understand
Hypnotherapy didn’t put me to sleep. In many ways, it made me more awake & aware.
I began recognizing just how much of my experience was showing up not only in my thoughts, but in my body.
It was an approach I had never encountered in medical school, and it gave me a different way of understanding the gap between what we know consciously and how we may continue to respond automatically.
I had to learn it because it helped me so much.
And that is why I am here.
Today, I work with people who may recognize something of themselves in my story—people who have tried to understand what is happening, yet still find themselves caught in emotions, reactions, habits, or patterns that feel difficult to change.
Others come to me without knowing why they feel the way they do at all. They simply know that something keeps happening automatically and they want to understand it differently.
Hypnotherapy gives us another way to explore those experiences—not simply by talking about them, but by paying attention to the thoughts, emotions, sensations, memories, and responses connected to the pattern.
So, if something in my story resonates with you, I invite you to reach out. We can talk about what you’ve been experiencing, what you’ve already tried, and whether my approach may be a good fit for you.
Credentials & Training
Spartan Health Sciences University, School of Medicine — 2012
Earned a Doctor of Medicine degree.
Clinical and Transpersonal Hypnotherapy
Institute of Interpersonal Hypnotherapy — 2019
Completed more than 600 hours of training in clinical and transpersonal hypnotherapy.
Additional Training
- HeartMath Practitioner — 2021
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner — 2022
- Ongoing study and application of parts-oriented work, Gestalt dialogue, Transactional Analysis, imagery, and body awareness
Professional Experience
- Behavioral-health clinical and operational leadership
- Private hypnotherapy practice since 2019
- In-person sessions in Fort Lauderdale
- Virtual sessions available
Professional Disclosure: I earned a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree but am not licensed to practice medicine. I do not diagnose medical or mental-health conditions, prescribe medication, or provide medical, psychiatric, or emergency treatment.
My services consist of hypnotherapy and educational or supportive services. Hypnotherapy is not a replacement for necessary medical care, psychiatric care, or treatment from a licensed mental-health professional.
If your needs fall outside my training or professional scope, I may recommend that you seek another form of support.