I am a career advisor, disability inclusion consultant, and mental health advocate with over 15 years of experience. I’ve worked with hundreds of job seekers with disabilities to build confidence, skills, and a sense of belonging in both work and community.
My work is informed by both professional practice and lived experience as a person with multiple disabilities. Over time, I’ve seen the same patterns of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness emerge again and again in the people I support and in my own life.
Research and lived reality point to the same conclusion: long-term unemployment, social inequality, and the ongoing grief that can accompany disability significantly increase vulnerability to mental distress. According to the CDC, people with disabilities experience mental distress at rates several times higher than their nondisabled peers.
With that context in mind, I focus on educating service providers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, job coaches, and other practitioners on the overlap between mental distress and disability and on practical, ethical skills that support people with disabilities without crossing clinical boundaries.
Disability and Mental Distress 