As a licensed therapist in Frederick, Maryland. I specialize in sports performance and ADHD for teens and adults. I help people who are struggling on the field, or potentially off the field. I found my love of working with athletes from being a former student-athlete myself. I ran cross country, indoor track, and track and field for Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, Maryland from 2016 to 2017, and at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland from 2017 to 2022.

I earned my bachelor’s degree in 2020, and master’s degree in 2023. During my time as an undergraduate student, I went through one of the toughest stretches in my life. It taught me some valuable lessons about life that I share with my clients.

“How much can you endure?” That’s a question I often asked myself during my college years. My first year at a new college was turbulent, filled with the challenges of adjusting to a new school and professors, and meeting new friends, coaches, and fellow athletes. A ivotal moment in my life came during the spring semester of 2018.

Injury & Self Doubt

To provide some context, I had just transferred into a four-year school from community college. The adjustment was overwhelming. The climax of my struggles occurred when I strained my Achilles tendon. It happened late in the indoor track season, and it was my first serious injury. It sidelined me for the remainder of the season.

While I had experienced a few minor injuries during the off-season, nothing had ever affected me during the season itself. Although the physical recovery wasn’t long, the mental toll was far more taxing. For months, I kept asking myself, “Am I truly healed? What if it comes back? What if it does become a tear?”

Given what I knew about Achilles injuries — how potentially devastating they can be and how long the recovery time can stretch — my mind raced with doubts. I often thought of the late Kobe Bryant, who tore his Achilles and faced months of grueling rehab to return to the court. Those thoughts consumed me, making recovery feel like an uncertain journey.

It also happened toward the tail end of the season where championships tend to happen. At that point, I had never run at a conference championship before. After years of never making any state championships in high school, I felt like I finally had my moment to shine. And then it was taken away just as quickly. The thoughts then became, “Why me? Why now?” It felt like a cruel twist of fate.

Fortunately, both physically and mentally, I was able to heal although I was still upset at the fact that I could not compete at the conference championship. But that injury was just the beginning of what would become the most challenging period of my life.

Before the injury, I had also experienced the loss of a friend I had known for nearly my entire life. My family had taken care of a horse that belonged to a close family friend, and I had grown up watching him run freely across the field. Losing him was difficult in ways I hadn’t anticipated. And as if that wasn’t enough, I was also struggling academically.

Test-taking was the worst. No matter what study methods I tried, nothing seemed to work. Each week, it felt like I was preparing to fail the next test or quiz. Eventually, I broke down. I cried for days, overwhelmed by the weight of everything happening at once. I felt like I was a failure. I was ashamed of myself. I even seriously contemplated dropping out of college. In desperation, I made an appointment with my advisor to discuss leaving school.

Do I Have a Place Here?

When the meeting finally came, I poured out my heart. I explained my struggles: the depression caused by my injury, the grief of losing my horse, and the overwhelming sense of inadequacy in my classes. I wasn’t just failing academically — I felt like I was failing in life. After listening patiently, my advisor smiled and said four words I will never forget: “You do belong here.”

At that moment, I wasn’t prepared to hear that I had a place in college. I had been so consumed by self-doubt that I couldn’t imagine how anyone could believe in me. But my advisor had seen my efforts — how hard I worked, how desperately I tried to pass, even when it felt impossible. Hearing her say I belonged gave me a sense of validation I desperately needed. For the first time in months, I allowed myself to believe that maybe, just maybe, I did belong there.

With that renewed sense of purpose, I committed myself to improving my study habits. After weeks of trial and error, I began to see progress in my academic performance. My grades finally started to reflect my effort, and I regained a sense of control. That belief — that I belonged — became the foundation that carried me through the rest of my undergraduate years. I continued to be a part of the track team throughout the rest of the year as an undergraduate student.

Lessons Learned through Pain

Through the course of those experiences, I learned valuable lessons.

• 1^st lesson: bad things will inevitably happen to us. When we try to control things that are not in our power, that is where anxiety comes into play.
• 2^nd lesson: When there is pain, growth and resilience follow.
• 3^rd lesson: Finding out I am not alone in the struggle. Even though getting my degree was technically a solo mission, I still had loved ones to support me.
• 4^th lesson: My advisor taught me that empathy and compassion can be an antidote to guilt and shame. Having someone able to understand my point of view helped me start to heal.

My experiences have helped shaped me into the person that I am today. There can be a time in our lives where it seems that nothing can go right. It also taught me that we do not have to go through tough times alone. Having my advisor tell me that I did belong was everything I needed to get myself out of the hole that I was thrown in.

At the Center for Empowerment and Resilience, I work with my clients to help them overcome struggles they face in life, particularly focusing on teens with ADHD, and helping counsel young athletes in sports performance. Just having someone there who can understand what a client is going through can make a big difference. I want to empower clients to become more resilient so they can make it through other tough situations in their lives.

Until next time.