Serving ages 14+ for individual & family therapy
EdD, MS, LMHC Founder & Clinical Director
Jessica specializes in treating OCD, anxiety, panic, phobias, agoraphobia, social anxiety, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, body-focused repetitive behaviors, OCPD and perfectionistic patterns, religious moral injury, shame, and relationship-related anxiety. Her OCD work includes concerns such as POCD, ROCD, scrupulosity and morality OCD, contamination, harm OCD, Just-Right OCD, and intrusive thoughts. She also works with medical and blood-injection-injury phobias, anxious attachment, rejection sensitivity, and family accommodation.
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Jessica brings extensive specialized training in both anxiety/OCD and trauma treatment. She is EMDR and Prolonged Exposure certified, CPT trained, an IOCDF Behavior Therapy Training Institute completer, and trained in SPACE, ERP, iCBT, ACT, CBT-I, and Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment for BFRBs. Before becoming a therapist, Jessica spent more than a decade as a public-school teacher, an experience that continues to shape her structured, educational, and collaborative approach to helping clients understand how healing happens.
My Style
My style is compassionate, structured, collaborative, and practical. I believe clients deserve to understand not only what we are doing in therapy, but why we are doing it. I take time to explain the methods we use, provide concrete tools, and create clear goals so the work feels understandable and purposeful.
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I also know therapy can involve difficult and vulnerable conversations. I bring empathy, gentle reflection, professionalism, and humor when appropriate into the room while helping clients challenge patterns that anxiety or trauma may have reinforced.
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My background as both an educator and clinician strongly influences the way I work. Learning is an important part of healing, and my goal is to help you better understand your mind, your nervous system, and the patterns that may be keeping you stuck.
Fort Walton Beach + Virtual Sessions Throughout Florida
Affirming list
LGBTQIA+ Affirming
Neurodiverse-Affirming
Trauma-Informed
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Military-Connected
BIPOC — Latinx/Cuban
My Focus Areas
Phobias & Medical Fears
Specific phobias and medical fears.
Social Anxiety
Fear of judgment and social avoidance.
OCD &
Intrusive Thoughts
Support for OCD, intrusive thoughts, and related fears.
Perfectionism & OCPD
Rigid expectations and perfectionistic patterns.
Panic, Phobias & Agoraphobia
Support for
panic, phobias,
and avoidance.
Insomnia
Anxiety-related sleep difficulties.
Trauma
& PTSD
PTSD, trauma, and abuse recovery.
Religious Moral Injury
Religious guilt, shame, and scrupulosity.
Therapeutic Approaches
Exposure & Response Prevention
ERP
Helping clients gradually face feared thoughts, sensations, and situations while reducing compulsions and avoidance that reinforce OCD and anxiety.
Prolonged Exposure
PE
An evidence-based trauma treatment designed to reduce avoidance and help clients safely process traumatic memories and reminders.
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
iCBT
Helping clients recognize how obsessive doubt develops and strengthen trust in information grounded in direct experience.
My Why
My connection to this work is both professional and personal. I have lived experience with OCD, panic, and social anxiety, so I understand how relentless fear can become and how exhausting it is when your mind feels like it is constantly sending danger signals.
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Before becoming a counselor, I spent more than ten years as a public-school teacher while moving throughout the Southeast with my husband’s military career. In the classroom, I saw firsthand how fear and trauma could affect a student’s ability to learn, regulate emotions, and feel successful. That experience showed me how closely learning and healing are connected and ultimately led me toward mental health counseling.
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My education reinforced that belief. My doctoral research focused on Cognitive Coaching and demonstrated the importance of strong, empathetic relationships alongside evidence-based methods. Today, that combination remains at the heart of how I approach clinical work and how I lead Invictus Counseling: understand the person, understand the science, and give people practical ways to move forward.
A Little More About me
Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Jessica enjoys getting lost in fantasy and science-fiction books.
Plants
She enjoys caring for and collecting plants.
Hiking
Getting outside and hiking is one of her favorite ways to recharge.
