Salut —
I’m Florence.

I didn’t arrive at this work by the usual road.

For nearly twenty years, I was a childcare provider, living alongside families through their most ordinary and most tender moments. I learned something there that still shapes everything I do: people of any age do better when someone takes their inner world seriously instead of rushing past it.

About ten years ago, I lived through a particular kind of relational trauma that changed my direction. I started a support group for others going through the same thing, and in trying to help them, I was drawn into this work in earnest. I learned to listen for what isn’t being said. That conviction eventually sent me back to school, where I earned my Master of Social Work — with distinction — and became a therapist.

How I think about this work.

I grew up in Eastern France, and I think it shows in how I work. Shaped by existential thinkers like Sartre, Camus, and Foucault, I don’t see your struggles as a malfunction to be fixed. They’re human — tangled up with your relationships, your history, your circumstances, and your search for meaning — and I’ll treat them that way.

I hold a healthy skepticism toward the impulse to pathologize what are often very normal responses to very hard situations. A life can hold real pain and real loss and still be deeply worth living. That belief is the heart of my practice.

I’ll be honest about who you’re getting.

I read too much philosophy and probably too many comics, and it shows. I think out loud, I question the tidy assumptions baked into words like “normal” and “healthy,” and I treat you as the authority on your own life — because you are. I won’t hand you a prepackaged version of “well.” What a good life looks like isn’t mine to define for you; my job is to help you figure out what you actually want from this work, and then move toward it on your terms.

The credentials, for those who want them.

I’m a Licensed Social Worker Associate — Independent Clinical (LSWAIC) in Washington State, with a Master of Social Work earned with distinction. I’ve completed EMDR Basic Training and certification in the Progressive Goal Attainment Program (PGAP). In session I draw on EMDR, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, ACT, DBT, CBT, and Solution-Focused approaches — choosing what fits you rather than running everyone through the same protocol.

I also believe good mental health care shouldn’t be reserved for the privileged few, and I try to practice like I mean it — with evening and weekend hours, and care offered in both English and French.