Wanderingshrink came to life as I was exploring how I wanted to show up on social media when I was in college. Gone were the days of using my edgy, goth usernames. I chose it because it represented the place that I was at in my educational and personal journey- knowing my destination without knowing the path to get there. Since then, wanderingshrink has become not only my go-to social media tag but also my online identity, and how many in the psychology and gaming communities recognize me.

I started therapeutic work in 2012, working for a partial hospitalization program as I was completing my undergraduate degree, and I fell in love with the field. Immediately after graduating, I started my M.S. in Clinical and Counseling Psychology at Chestnut Hill College and worked with adolescents in a residential treatment facility. The clients I worked with taught me how connecting over their interests and using those interests in treatment helped me understand them easier than traditional psychotherapy.

In 2016, I entered the Clinical Psychology PsyD program at Chestnut Hill College. During my tenure, I formed and facilitated multiple groups addressing social anxiety using Dungeons and Dragons at my practicum and internship sites. I completed my clinical internship at the University of Washington Tacoma. I was awarded my doctorate in 2021 and submitted my dissertation “They’ll pay for what they’ve done to me”: Narcissistic Personality Traits, Retaliation, and Bully-Victims”. I did two years of my post-doctoral training at Game to Grow in their counseling center, facilitated applied TTRPG groups as a therapeutic game master, and ran their assessment program as a program coordinator. Currently, I am a postdoctoral resident at Save Point Behavioral Health, where we all specialize in working with geeks and gamers.

I connected with the geek, gaming, and therapy space while searching for resources for my own therapeutic D&D groups. I joined the Geeks Like Us community and became their community manager in 2020. Since then, I have been lucky enough to speak on multiple panels and presentations at PAX, APA, Geek Girl Con, and other conventions. I have contributed chapters to the Psychgeist of Pop Culture series and to the Psychology of Elden Ring.