Why I Started This Work

My career in mental health began in 2019—but not by choice.

At the time, I had checked every box by age 25: university degree, homeownership, leadership role, and a marriage that looked stable from the outside. I was high-performing, high-functioning—and silently unraveling. What no one saw was the impact of unresolved trauma I’d carried for years: childhood sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, emotional neglect, and self-abandonment.

When I discovered my (now ex) husband’s infidelity, the emotional fallout triggered a full nervous system collapse and mental health crisis. I sought help within the traditional mental health system but quickly recognised that the system wasn’t built to support people like me—high achievers navigating trauma silently.

I was diagnosed with four mental illnesses, placed on medication and did talk therapy. I showed up diligently to therapy, but, even after years of doing that, nothing I was learning in talk therapy helped me feel safe and at peace in my body or in my life. I quickly realised that most mental health frameworks aren’t built for high performers. They’re built for those in crisis.

I was now able to articulate my pain, but not process it, yet I was praised for being strong while internally deteriorating. My resilience was misread as strength. My language was interpreted as insight. That experience exposed a fundamental gap in how we treat trauma, particularly for high-performing individuals in the Caribbean.

That’s when I took control of my own healing—and my own education. 

Professional Background & Clinical Training

I didn’t just go to therapy—I studied it. I began researching trauma as a scholar-practitioner, not just to heal myself—but to understand what was missing in the system. I didn’t need mindset hacks. I needed a way to feel safe in my body again.  I wanted to understand how the body holds pain, how the mind rewrites survival as identity, and how high-performing women like me often carry “high-functioning trauma” masked as success.

I trained in Somatic Experiencing®, trauma physiology, and nervous system regulation. And I’m currently completing a PhD in Developmental Psychology, with a specialisation in Leadership and Administration. My doctoral research focuses on how childhood trauma shapes the life outcomes of high-performing Caribbean women in leadership.

I specialise in high-functioning trauma—the kind of trauma that hides behind degrees, deadlines, and overdelivering. The kind that keeps you performing while disconnected, anxious, and burnt out.

I’m the founder of Espoir Trauma Clinic—a boutique mental health clinic serving high-functioning individuals across the Caribbean. Our work focuses on trauma-informed therapy, somatic healing, executive support, and intensive recovery from developmental trauma for professionals, creatives, and leaders.

I created Espoir because I saw a systemic gap in mental healthcare: high-functioning people—especially women in leadership—are often overlooked, misdiagnosed, or pathologised for their coping strategies. 

My work exists to close the gap between survival and sustainability. To create frameworks for emotional safety in high-stakes lives. And to give language to the kinds of trauma that don’t get recognised—because they wear lipstick, degrees, and leadership titles.

At Espoir, we don’t treat trauma like a mental health issue alone. We treat it as a human performance issue—because unresolved trauma affects how you lead, relate, and show up in every part of your life.

I bring a rare combination of clinical expertise, research insight, somatic depth, and lived experience to the conversation on trauma, performance, and leadership in the Caribbean. I bring my whole self into this work—because I know what it’s like to fall apart in silence and rebuild from the inside out.

I help individuals heal. I help organisations evolve. And I help the region move forward—through trauma-informed systems, policies, and leadership that prioritise people, not just performance.

If you're looking for more than coping tools—if you’re ready to lead, heal, and perform from a place of true internal safety—you're in the right place.

What Sets My Work Apart

This isn’t just therapy. It’s not coaching. And it’s not motivational fluff.

My work sits at the intersection of:

• Clinical trauma treatment
  
• Nervous system regulation and somatic science
  
• Organisational development and leadership strategy
  
• Caribbean cultural insight and identity repair
  

I’ve consulted for government agencies on trauma-informed policy, advised law firms and school systems on workplace wellbeing, worked with regional banks and hospitality leaders on emotional intelligence and burnout prevention, and supported entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, and military personnel through private clinical care.

I’m the creator of two original diagnostic tools:

• The High-Functioning Trauma Questionnaire (HFTQ)
  
• The Trauma Imprint Screening Tool
  

One of the most distinctive aspects of my work—what truly sets me apart from most therapists—is that I teach financial literacy and money mastery as part of trauma recovery.

Why? Because in the modern world, emotional safety requires financial stability. And emotional safety is a prerequisite for healing.

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does shape the conditions under which safety, rest, and regulation become possible. Without it, many high-achieving women remain stuck in chronic survival mode—always working, always striving, constantly chasing security that never quite lands.

That’s why I work at the intersection of trauma and economics.
Because when unresolved trauma meets money scarcity, it fuels a deep sense of instability. You may look successful on the outside, but inside you’re stuck in a loop of high-functioning anxiety, overachievement, and emotional exhaustion.

I see this every day in my practice.
Brilliant, capable women—lawyers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and executives—whose nervous systems are constantly activated, not because they aren’t smart or successful, but because the pursuit of success has become entangled with the pursuit of safety.

This is why I take my work beyond the therapy chair and address the full context of your life: your work, your money, your leadership, your legacy.

I help you reclaim power—not just over your emotions, but over your income, your impact, and your future.