Diana…
Sincerely loves her clients. Thus, 35 years as a counselor. She loves service.
Is a self-proclaimed God-geek who has a passion for getting to know Him better and wanting to walk in His plan for her life.
Loves growing in the things of God — reading the scriptures, watching a video from a trusted teacher, delving into deep prayer and worship.
Enjoys spending time with the people she loves — her dear friends and sweet family. And she loves to hang with Rosa the cat who is beautiful, funny, and sometimes sassy.
Serves in her church, loves and honors her pastors and church family.
Couldn’t be the counselor she is without her pastors.
Loves God’s natural world and all of his creatures in it.
Life Journey
Sometimes people think counselors have perfect lives. Not so. I want to share my journey so you can see how we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28). What amazes me about our God is that His mercy is so vast He worked it all for my good long before I was saved! He knew I’d come into His Kingdom on fire!
My rich and rewarding history of counseling began in the schools, with elementary, middle, and high school students, and later, with adults and children at two community mental health centers. The loss of my mom in those early years of counseling was a huge heartache and helped me to understand that loss for others. God used for good what the devil meant to crush me.
As a special education social worker, I spent two years counseling middle school-aged children with emotional and behavioral issues. I learned about Asperger’s and autism and that experience has been beneficial to help families to this day. God again worked a very challenging situation for good over the long run.
God then “delivered” me from that position because I became pregnant and very nauseous! I later learned of a controversy I was grateful not to be around. I left and stayed home to parent my new baby daughter. This wonderful experience of becoming a parent I’ve drawn from too, many times, in counseling others.
Heartache followed when my marriage ended. Even though it was devastating at the time, I’m fully healed from that broken heart thanks to the power of our God Who heals the broken hearted (Psalm 34:18). I bring hope to those whose marriages fall apart, and wisdom to couples having difficulty.
I re-entered counseling as single parent with a 4-year-old daughter in my life and little to no family locally. Again, I understand single parenting! After that position lost funding, I took a non-counseling position teaching unwed young moms. There I was exposed to a wide variety of issues and varying degrees of severity of suffering.
Two years later, they also lost their funding. I was tired of layoffs and opened my own practice in 2003.
Things were quite difficult in my personal life in those years as I parented my growing daughter. Through all of that, I gained valuable experience as a mother that has shaped my counseling. It also led me to the most impactful transformation of my life. JESUS. I saw firsthand that when we have a child in crisis, God can move powerfully. I will never be the same.
Coming to Christ
Everything changed for me in an instant. I had a radical conversion. I was no longer the same after I came to Christ, and my life became 100% about Jesus, including my counseling practice. Bread of Life Counseling came to be in the year 2013. And He named it. I knew that I was no longer my own, and neither was my livelihood. I saw it as a ministry not just a livelihood. I changed to be someone who relies on the Holy Spirit and the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, infallible Truth that I am compelled to live by.
Education
MSW Simmons College 1989
Prior to being a strictly Bible-based counselor was an LICSW.