Hi, I'm Betty

I began with a Master of Science in Education from Touro University, specializing in Special Education and General Education (Birth through Grade 6), with a focus in psychology. That degree shaped how I think about development, learning, and the ways in which emotional and behavioral needs are often inseparable from academic ones.

Working in schools and educational settings, I learned early that meeting a child where they are — rather than where you expect them to be — is not just good pedagogy. It is the foundation of any meaningful relationship.

From education, my path moved into behavioral and therapeutic work with children, pre-teens, and adolescents. I spent years providing ABA-based therapeutic support to young people navigating behavioral, emotional, social, and developmental challenges — in homes, schools, and clinical settings.

That work was slow, careful, and deeply relational. It taught me that real change rarely happens through technique alone. It happens through trust, consistency, and the experience of feeling genuinely seen and understood. That foundation has never left me — it lives in every session I hold today.

Alongside my behavioral work, I built a practice in personal styling and branding. On the surface, it might seem like a departure — but it never felt that way to me.

Working with people on how they presented themselves, I kept encountering the same thing: the way we inhabit our own identity is rarely just about aesthetics. It is about how safe we feel being seen. How much we trust ourselves. How connected we feel to who we actually are. Confidence and self-expression, I came to understand, are not separate from emotional wellness. They are part of the same conversation.

I launched Chat With Betty because I kept meeting people who were carrying real, quiet struggles — about self-worth, anxiety, relationships, identity — but who were not yet in a therapy room and did not know where to turn.

Podcasting became a way to meet them there. To make mental health conversations feel less clinical and more human. To say: you are not alone in this, and it is okay to talk about it. That work continues today, and it remains one of the most meaningful parts of what I do.

I am now completing my second graduate degree — a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Capella University — and in many ways, it feels like the natural destination of everything that came before.

The years in education, the behavioral work, the styling, the podcasting — all of it has shaped how I understand people, how I listen, and what I believe healing actually requires. I work with pre-teens, teens, young adults, and adults navigating anxiety, self-doubt, life transitions, and emotional overwhelm. Therapy services are provided through my affiliated practice, Evolve Integrative Therapy.

Throughout every chapter, I have spoken publicly about mental health, confidence, and resilience — in schools, at events, and in community spaces.

The goal has always been the same: to make these conversations more accessible, less intimidating, and more honest. To reach people before they reach a breaking point. To normalize the work of understanding yourself.