Sydney is currently pursuing her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. With a background in counseling, yoga, and athletics, she blends practical tools, holistic approaches, and mindset work to support clients through life’s challenges. As a former Division I athlete, she understands the mental and emotional demands of performance and life transitions. She is especially passionate about working with athletes navigating high-pressure environments, self-doubt, and life after sports. Her approach is compassionate, real, and rooted in empowering clients to rewrite old narratives, strengthen their confidence, and create lasting change.

Sonja is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach with more than 10-years of experience in the 12-Step community. She is also the co-leader and co-designer of Recovery at The Crossing (The Crossing Church in Chesterfield, MO) and the creator of Boundaries in Relationships–a 6-hour training that helps participants understand the dynamics of healthy relationships and take steps toward setting boundaries with people they want very badly to fix, change or control.

As difficult as it may be, painful experiences can be amazing opportunities for growth. However, it’s difficult to learn from your life when you’re going it alone. I can help with that. This isn’t my first career, and everywhere I’ve been I’ve counseled people through some of the most difficult challenges life can offer: anxiety, depression, family conflict, childhood trauma, abuse, divorce, grief, and just feeling lost. When you’re in that place it can feel like you’ll never make it out, but that is only true if you allow it to be. Sometimes all it takes is finding the right language, as language leads to insight, and insight grants us agency. Often what we need is a new perspective. I can provide that with calm empathy and without judgment.

I grew up in Iowa and have a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Missouri (Columbia). I’m an experienced mentor with a background in spiritual development, having taught at the college level, the high school level, and to kids as young as third grade. I believe all people are born creative and the loss of creativity is a sad reality of socialization.

When we create we exist in a state of openness that allows us to engage the world in new, surprising ways. When we create we learn about ourselves and we expand our empathy. My classes are rooted in a contemplative, rather than analytical, approach to reading, and aim for a mode of expression that transcends the limitations of the self. In addition to my work at CCA I am an Assistant Football Coach at Liberty High School (Wentzville) where I coach Quarterbacks.