About Traci

In my early years, I wanted to be a psychiatrist or psychologist when I grew up, not knowing any other therapy fields at that time. I knew I wanted to help people to feel better. At about the same age (about 10), I called up a non-profit organization from the yellow pages and asked if I could be a mentor to a little girl. I was offended when they told me that I was the little girl. I was plenty old enough to know about a lot of things. I grew up fast, adapted to my many environments and had done a good job of being the new kid at school. I adapted so well to the world around me in fact, I became adept at reading people's body language and discerning their motivations. I became whatever I needed to be to survive and get my emotional needs met. I became the empty mirror of other people. I graduated from high school and moved from Maine to California. I was a courageous lost soul. I began an adventure in living, learning and experiencing the world in all its light and darkness. I always took the wrong road first. Ironically, I read the book, “The Road Less Traveled” M. Scott Peck and it changed me. I became subtly aware that I would forever be a work in progress. Nature and family drew me back from the west coast in 2001. My heart broke wide open that year with grief and loss. In retrospect I believe that had to happen for me to ever have been vulnerable enough to love. I have been together with my husband nearly 20 years and have two teenage boys and 2 dogs. I have learned so much from my children. The first 7 years years of my parenting I was in “fight or flight’ mode ‘Super-Momming’ it, attending school, over achieving and throwing myself into every bit of Autism research I could. All the while, smiling, and numbing the anxiety and fear that goes along with having a child diagnosed with Autism and carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders—I needed to learn boundaries. The way I was living was not a sustainable or gratifying way to be; I broke, I crumbled, I unraveled, I let go… I reached out and allowed grace to enter. Spiritual and mindfulness principles are a way of life for me, as I continue to cultivate a resilient spirit one day at a time. My faculty supervisor awarded me the “Most Resilient” and encouraged me to bring “Me" into the therapy session every time. During supervision with this professor, I shared a recorded session that was not at all like the therapeutic model I was aiming to analyze for my year long capstone project. Instead, I showed my spontaneous use of improvisation to meet the client where they were at. As a recovering perfectionist, I cried and declared it “shit!" My professor looked me in the eye and told me “it's about time, ‘YOU’ showed up, it's not shit--its gold!” Thank you Dr. Daniel Weiner, I am forever grateful for you.