The expert patient
who is also the provider.

I am a Clinical Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist. I work with people navigating traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, chronic illness, and catastrophic diagnoses — asking them to face their reality with honesty and courage.

For most of my life, I hid the reality of what I was actually living with. Not the conditions — you can't hide an ICU stay. But what they meant. What they required. That pushing through was costing me far more than I let anyone see. I went back to school later in life specifically to talk about this — to build the credentials where this conversation couldn't be dismissed.

Accepting my reality changed what I was capable of. When I stopped denying my own experience and started meeting it honestly, I found I could accomplish different things — different, but still meaningful and productive. That remains true every day.

That experience gave me something I can actually teach. I know what it takes to bridge the distance between patient and provider — because I have sat in both seats. The skills that make that relationship work are learnable. And when both sides bring them to the encounter, what becomes possible is worth talking about.