Hi, I'm Cara.

For sixteen years, I've sat with women in some of the hardest seasons of their lives — the ones that don't make it onto Instagram. The pregnancy that didn't go like the plan. The postpartum fog that nobody warned you about. The chronic illness that turned routine into a daily negotiation with your own body. The seasons where you somehow keep doing what's required of you, and feel further from yourself with every check on the list.

I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I see clients in person at my office on Albemarle Avenue in Roanoke and online from anywhere in Virginia. I work with adults — primarily women — in individual therapy.

What I specialize in

My deepest area of expertise is perinatal and postpartum mental health — the full arc from trying to conceive, through pregnancy, birth, and the long postpartum recovery that nobody quite tells you about. Postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, intrusive thoughts, birth trauma, the loneliness of new motherhood, the identity rupture that comes with becoming someone's mom. I've supported many parents through this season and trained specifically in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

I also work with people navigating chronic illness — not as an outside observer, but with a personal understanding of what it means to live in a body that doesn't always cooperate. The grief, the adjustment, the way illness can quietly reshape your relationships and your sense of who you are.

Beyond those specialties, I see women dealing with anxiety, depression, life transitions, OCD, relationship difficulties, self-esteem, and the particular kind of exhaustion that comes from being competent at everything for too long.

How I work

My approach blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), person-centered work, solution-focused brief therapy, and trauma-focused approaches. Translation: we look at what's keeping you stuck, we build skills for the part of your life that's on fire right now, and we also make room for the harder work of understanding why things hurt the way they do.

I offer Christian counseling for clients who want their faith integrated into the work, and I'm equally comfortable with clients who don't. The work belongs to you — I follow your lead on what role spirituality plays in it.

Who I tend to work well with

Most of my clients are women in some chapter of motherhood — trying to become a mother, newly one, or somewhere in the long middle where you can't remember the last full thought you had to yourself.

I also tend to attract a particular kind of high-capacity, big-feeling woman — the one who's competent and overworked and a little weird in a way her colleagues don't quite know how to handle. The one whose mind moves fast, whose feelings move faster, and who secretly suspects everyone else has the manual she lost somewhere around age twelve. If that sounds like you, I'm probably your kind of therapist.

A few practical things

• Individual sessions are $175.
• I'm in-network with Aetna, Anthem, BlueCross and BlueShield, Optum, Oxford, UnitedHealthcare (UHC/UBH).
• Sliding scale spots are sometimes available — ask if cost is a barrier.
• First conversation is a free 15-minute consultation by phone or video, no commitment.
• In-person in Roanoke or telehealth from anywhere in Virginia.