I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area-a town (which is now a city) called Walnut Creek. I left for college at the age of 17 and while there fell in love with the idea of a military career. I graduated from BYU's Army ROTC program in 1981-the fourth female ever to do so-and served as an Army Aviation Officer until 1990, during which time I had the incredible opportunity of flying a variety of helicopters. While in the service, I married an Army Special Operations Warrant Officer and had 3 sons. My first son died when he was 9 months old from SIDS. 

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After leaving the service, I had 3 more children--twin girls and another boy. Over the course of the next couple of decades I worked at various jobs and did a lot of volunteer work. It wasn't until my husband and I divorced and my sons had served in multiple combat deployments with the army that I knew what I wanted to do for a second career. I have seen first and second hand the value of therapy, and have also seen the cost of refusing to do the work. I knew that working with people to overcome the Trauma and trauma that can cause so many problems in their lives was where I wanted to invest my time and energy.