Social Work was a calling for me that developed after a couple of career changes. I was an elementary teacher just out of college. After switching to cost analyzing for 10 years, I decided I did not want to do that the rest of my life. I chose social work because I felt that it came naturally to me with the desire to help others. I have had the opportunity to work with a vast array of populations including children in foster care or who have been adopted, severely mentally ill adults at an inpatient psychiatric hospital, teens at an inpatient psychiatric hospital and children and families at a children’s medical hospital. Over the years, my love for working with children, youth and their families has grown. Using a cognitive behavioral approach, I help the client understand what they are feeling so they can learn to communicate their feelings and manage them better. I use a variety of activities including games, drawing, books, role-play, etc. Plus, I enjoy guiding parents to grow in empathy with their children’s feelings. When working with parents, my goals are often to support changes in family communication and structure. Parents leave our sessions with tools to set limits and to build strong connections with their children.