About Me

I am passionate about play and about children and families enjoying life together.

I am a social worker with 24 years’ experience. I completed my undergrad degree at what was then called UND (now UKZN, Durban). I have a Social Work Master’s degree in Play Therapy from the University of Pretoria. For more on what play therapy is, you can read here.

I love to see children and adults find out more about who they are and the worth they add to the world around them. I truly believe there is always Fresh Hope. I believe there is new hope every day for change and growth.

I love being outdoors, swimming, walking, gardening, and I am a complete bookworm. I love a good movie and I love popcorn enough to blog about it at times. I journal regularly and am not averse to spending a day alone to recharge.

I have two teenage children, and a fabulous husband.

My Values

I’ve been thinking about what my values are for some time and about the importance of communicating them as the foundation from which I live and work. Even if no one ever reads these; here they are, and this is me, right now.

Community

Family, small groups, neighborhoods, and friends all make up community for me. I value a space where I need to live for someone other than myself. Sometimes it involves sacrifice, sometimes it is uncomfortable. But community living is the antidote to self-absorption and isolation in today’s world. And also, I adore my family. Full stop.

Connection

I deeply love and appreciate people. I enjoy making and fostering connections. I want to be a catalyst for connection in parent-child relationships where that connection has been lost or is temporarily "offline." When we work on our connections with others, we are giving and receiving messages of love, significance, and belonging. Play is the way children experience connection, and so I love to continually promote play!

Wholeness

I intentionally work on my own wholeness as a lifestyle through journaling, my spiritual journey, my relationships, and the communities I’m part of.

Wholeness is not the same as perfection—I’ll be a work in progress until the day I die! I work from a systemic perspective. Human beings are emotional, physical, spiritual, biological, and psychological beings.

I believe I have a particular part to play in the spiritual and emotional well-being of children and families. I long to see families thrive in wholeness, and I believe wholeness is possible.

Faith

My faith in Jesus is central to who I am and the driving force behind the decisions I make. My faith enables me to believe in fresh hope every day.