About Me
Nice to meet you
We’ll start here. My name is Kayla. Nice to meet you and glad you’re here!
If you are here, it may be because you’re my mom. She's one of my top supporters of course. But if you're not my mom, here's what you need to know about me.
I am a marriage and family therapist (LAMFT) in Arizona.
I am an introvert to my bones. Found a shirt that says "it's too peopley outside" and I couldn't agree more. With that being said, I am comfortable with talking in front of people and l feel fueled after making someone laugh
I am a wife of almost 9 years to my BF (his initials are also BF… convenient). I am currently a stay-at-home mom of a three year old son and a one year old daughter. Oh man, they are my world! I didn't know true happiness until I brought children into this world with a man that I love.
Things I enjoy to do include eating any type of sweets, going on meaningful adventures with loved ones, and making people laugh.
Devilish Education
As an Arizona native I couldn't have imagined going to school anywhere else but Arizona State University. Not really, it actually took me well into grad school before I got the devil's pride. But the devil finally won me over.
I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Psychology as well as my Masters of Advanced Studies in Marriage and Family Therapy (say that 5 times fast) from ASU. It is safe to say that I have a very narrow and specialized education in regards to family systems and relationships which shone through as I was in the work field.
What is LAMFT?
Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
I have passed a national exam and I am approved by the state of Arizona to provide counseling with clinical supervision. One must earn 1500 direct client hours in order to advance to be an LMFT and half must be with families or couples.
AKA licensed marriage and family therapists are the most qualified for working with family relations.
Or in my grad classes we were known as mother freaking therapists haha.
Workin' It
During my graduate program I interned at a facility which specialized in suicide prevention. I focused on adolescents and children which means I did mostly family therapy and some individual work. After graduating I received a license as an associate marriage and family therapist. I went straight to work at a new company where I specialized again with children. I learned to get creative in talking about feelings and identifying ways to discuss difficult topics with the littles. Though they were small, the kiddos I worked with came with very large problems even at so young. It was difficult work but rewarding to make changes and even little differences in their lives.
So what is Scattered Sunshine?
I chose the name Scattered Sunshine for a couple reasons. First off, you can’t say sunshine and not feel warmth, some sort of happiness, and maybe even have a feel-good song pop in your head (“I got sunshine,” “I'm walkin’ on sunshine,” “You are my sunshine,” “I got that sunshine in my pocket,” to name a few). Now that I got you singing, I want to acknowledge that life is not always sunshine and shouldn’t be really. You gotta feel highs and you gotta feel lows. So I picked the word scattered to show that sometimes sunshine is going to be scarce but we can still find the warm rays through the clouds. Sometimes it’s its a friend, sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s therapy that brings those warm rays. But I want my social media accounts to be just an extra layer of rays to shine your way. Also, my thoughts may at times be scattered as you will soon see as I write… so double meaning. BOOM!
Goals for Scattered Sunshine:
An Agent of Change
Though I am currently a stay-at-home-mom, my love for helping others has never changed. I love seeing a partner's view shift or a parent's understanding deepen or a child's fears calmed. Being an agent of positive change is what helps me thrive.
Scattered Sunshine is where I'm applying this wonderful upbringing in marriage and family work and desire to enlist change in others. I may not be an agent of change in the office setting, and even though I am the agent of change every time there is a poopy diaper, I promise I have so much to offer and I'm excited to be a possible influence of hope and resolve for you.