Brian is a Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist and Recovery Support Peer Specialist who brings both professional training and lived experience to his work. He is known for being both passionate and compassionate. He supports people through genuine connection, mutual respect, and the belief that each person is more than a diagnosis, a difficult season, or the challenges they have faced. His approach is grounded in meeting people where they are, listening with care, and helping them recognize their own strengths, choices, and capacity for recovery.
At the Austin Mental Health Community Center, Brian facilitates groups, provides one-on-one peer support, serves on the administrative team, and helps create a welcoming space where members can feel seen, heard, and included. He will soon be moving into a crisis-support role with Austin Psychiatric Emergency Services, where he will provide peer support to individuals during difficult and vulnerable moments. In this role, he hopes to bring a calm, compassionate, and accepting presence while helping people feel less alone, more grounded, and more connected to hope.
Brian especially enjoys helping members begin to see themselves through a more positive and hopeful lens. He supports people in recognizing their own autonomy, creativity, strengths, and ability to become the change agents in their own lives. He believes self-empowerment grows when people are given the space and encouragement to make decisions that reflect their own goals and values.
He also enjoys using creativity, conversation, humor, and shared experience to help people build confidence and reconnect with themselves and others. Brian believes peer support is about walking alongside someone, offering hope grounded in experience, and reminding people that meaningful change is possible.
Outside of his peer work, Brian has a deep love of nature, art, music, and the North Carolina mountains. He feels most restored when surrounded by trees, mountain air, animals, and the natural world. He also enjoys creative projects, thoughtful conversation, working on his fixer-upper, and exploring the connections between mental wellness, community, nature, and personal growth.
